Specimen 972498
by Free Dan Phantom
Summary: I watch my new captors through six-inches of ghost-proof glass, chained and prodded as they see fit. A ghost of my power caged like an animal for the sake of Science. Someday their technology will fail, I will be free again, and then this realm will BURN!
1. Tram Ride

**Dan**

* * *

It's almost funny really. Of course, I'm not laughing, but still, looking back, my life can easily be organized into the layered circles of Hell.

Getting ghost powers at fourteen and forcing myself to save the day as a pathetic hero was the first circle. Watching everyone I once cared for, and Lancer, die in a explosion... probably the third or four circle. Being shielded and beaten out of my former hometown by that obnoxious little pest, Valerie, the fifth or six. Being beaten by my ignorant teenage self easily the seventh, maybe eighth, if I added being left to rot in a damn thermos for the rest of eternity as part of my unsettling defeat.

Which circle am I in now? The ninth and final circle that resides only in the deepest, darkest hole one could imagine. How do I know? I breathed a heavy sigh, shaking my head ever so slightly, lips parting to show sharpened fangs as I thought the answer. All those years of absolute domination of all opposition, all those years of complete freedom, they were gone with no hint of ever returning. That and wherever I'm being transferred to will most likely be another artificial mockery of my 'natural habitat' that would double as my cell.

I was congratulated and thanked by my so-called 'handler' for 'going quietly', disregarding my very direct statement "There is no way in Hell I'm going without a fight". He knows as well as I that I don't have much of a choice what they do to or with me. Even with all my strength and experience, this race of scientists constantly find new way to control and contain me.

The first thing I remember them strapping on me was a simple electric collar, which is still clamped securely around my neck. I've stopped feeling the twin prongs on either side digging into my flesh, just as much as I've taken every opportunity to try to get this damn thing off!

When I started fighting back, they built a giant claw-like device called the "Ectoplasmic Siphon" that literally feeds off my energy to keep me weak. After a few explosions, both metaphorical and literal, they upgraded to a more invasive device. I've only heard it referred to as the Converter and I recall my former parents developing a similar device that, despite their best efforts, was more humane then this one.

I was drugged, or more precisely, intentionally overdosed by the scientists with some kind of gaseous anaesthetic. Upon waking, I fell from the upright stasis pod flat on my face straight onto the cold linoleum tiled floor where I remained until I could feel any part of my body beyond the intense pain just above my left hip and throbbing numbness the rest of me felt pulsing through my entire being like a wave.

When I finally managed to regain enough sensation to bring myself to my knees, all but him left the 'observation quarters' which was more or less the same like the glass tank exhibits in reptile house at the zoo, only much larger to hold much more powerful creatures.

He lectured to me that the device strapped around my waist penetrated a full four inches into my body, and was draining my powers directly at the source, and converting it into energy to help power the laboratory complex. In short, I was a living battery.

Now, I find myself getting my first view beyond my cell at Veneficus Science. I know that's the name of this hellhole because it's emblazoned on the back of the four robotic sentries that stand guard during my unwanted tram ride. If it was _only_ them, this would be _exactly_ the kind of break I would need.

Ripping the guards to shreds would be effortless and this race of brainiacs and techies have offhandedly stated that they are even _weaker_ then humans! The only problem is that not even in my future, where anti-ghost technology evolved dramatically in response to my threatening existence, was there anything anywhere near as advanced as their's.

My arms were bound together in front of me with steel shackles, my hands forced into fists so they fit into the semi-circular shield that stops any ectoplasmic attack dead. Believe me, I've tried. From the slightly-elevated levitating platform I was confined to, a beam of green energy generated from the floor in front of me seems latched to my collar like some electrical leash, preventing me from leaning back. Considering I can't lean forward either means another energy leash is attached from behind me. On top of the already excessive measures against me, a thick transparent dome surrounded both me and my restraints.

The metallic tram-car slowed to a stop at a dead end of a concrete hallway near a station populated exclusively by more of the heavily armed and armored bipedal mechanical guards. In fact, I hadn't seen a single living thing since the transfer begin. All the living personal of this place probably wouldn't come within a hundred miles of me if they could help it. Only one dared to come in close contact.

A faint humming flew down from above, some cat-sized hummingbird-like robot zipped down in front of the door, pausing only until the semi-transparent force field across the only doorway vanished, before it burst into the tram car. It scanned the two guards that stood in front of me from top to bottom with a red gridded laser, before it quickly zipped over to me. The metal bird flashed the red light in my eye, making me wince slightly, before scanning the other two sentries and exiting with a cheery beep.

The guard answered with a deeper, mechanized grunt and the shield flashed back into place. Thin white beams shot down from the ceiling, connecting with the tram's corners, before the car starts to descend, the red flashing hazard lights all the proof I need to know it is taking me to the ninth circle of Hell.


	2. Behind the Scenes

**Dr. Percival Goddards Ph.D**

* * *

Today was the day, finally. Daniel had been growing restless and inpatient (well, _more_ restless and inpatient, anyway) daily in that inadequate holding chamber of only 8 feet by 10 feet by 12 feet. Now, thanks to my latest grant, I was able to breath in relief that he would be housed in his own bio-dome, a micro-kingdom to call his own, all while my colleagues and I could watch what was most likely the first banshee seen in over 500 years.

His power levels are beyond any sample on record, so much so that the micro-computer readout device in my monocle detected his presence in the Time Master's lair from over 150 feet away through his peculiar thermos-like prison. The purple-cloaked specter intervened in my simple taking of the container but we soon struck a bargain: I may take the specimen, apparently named Daniel or 'Dan' for short, back to my labs for processing as long as I ensured he could cause no harm to anyone, and if the worst should happen and he escaped, that I was to fight and recapture him on my own.

Daniel has tried and tested not only our technological limit, but my reputation in the scientific community as well. Now, I worry whether my funding to house him came from my well-earned respect or merely because myself and my long-time companion, Porter, are more athletic then the majority of the Wizard race and they fear some violent repercussion.

Now, I wouldn't say I'm muscle-bound like Daniel or Porter, but I have a broader, more sturdy build than most, along with an ability to participate in more vigorous activities, and that has allowed me a wide variety of opportunities in the field, such as one-on-one specimen interaction. One day, perhaps, Daniel will willingly allow me into his habitat, maybe even _invite_ me in, so we can work together to help him overcome his destructive bend and make him a productive member of society. He could even become a hero! One can only hope.

As Daniel was being transferred, I was enjoying some tea in the cafeteria platform, my comrade, Porter, in the shade of the table, as I tried to make sense of Daniel's latest blood tests. His testosterone levels were climbing again, as were his stress hormone levels. Not good.

'_Attention_,' I glanced up as the female-voiced automated announcement system kicked in. '_All staff are reminded that Tram Route #4 in currently unavailable due to the transference of a Class-Ten Specimen to Sector J._' That would be Daniel on his way to his new home, I chucked in my head. '_All staff are mandatorily required to evacuate all passages adjacent and congruent with Tram Route #4 until further notice. Failure to do so alleviates __Veneficus Science__ and all subsidiaries of any personal injuries caused by the Class-Ten Specimen. Thank you and please, have a very safe day._'

I finished my beverage and gently prodded my friend with my foot. Porter had curled up against my travel bag, his normal load he ungrudgingly carried from day-to-day. I estimated its weight was around two-hundred pounds, but he's told me he had grown used to its weight after spending our shared adolescence and young adulthood carrying my increasing growing amounts of equipment.

"Porter," I said in a sing-song kind of voice "Wakey-wakey. _Veki-veki._" Porter yawned widely before sitting up to stretch. "We need to get down to the Habitation Simulator before Daniel arrives, so we can greet him. Sound good?:"

Porter grunted, rolling his eyes as he got up and swung the equipment pack over his shoulder, like a backpack. He groaned in annoyance. "Fari vi ne jam vidi li tre multa?"

"See him too much? What in Atheneum do you mean?" I asked

Porter sighed and muttered "Daniel, Daniel, Daniel." while mocking my voice, rather poorly, I might add.

"Oh, pish-posh." I gently scolded him as we started making our way to the tram station on the upper cafeteria platform. "You needn't be so possessive of me, my friend. Everything will work out in the end. Right now, we need Daniel to get situated and my colleagues to understand how to deal with him before I can step back. It'll work out, I promise." I smiled at him. He returned my expression weakly but remained silent.

I loaded my destination onto the small monitor at the station, and a platform of hard light flashed into existence above the immaterial electric rail. I guided Porter onto the platform (He never trusted any technology unless I showed him it was safe) and we quickly headed to Daniel's new home.

The tram took relatively no time at all, although Porter's silence didn't speed the ride up any. I mentally filed away his unusual behavior as the tram stopped and faded into nothing as we got off.

Up the curved staircase and into the dimly lit observation area where seven of my associates were gathered. General greetings were exchanged and I peeked into Daniel's new habitat. Beautiful but simple, natural, plus I knew he would enjoy a few surprises and hiding places I included in the blueprints. After all, even _I_ would feel uncomfortable being as exposed as he would be without having _some_ place to be in solitude.

"Percival," a colleague said from his seat in front of the tinted window.

"Yes, Leonardo?"

"The ecto-siphon is primed and ready for your little monster." he spoke, emphasizing the word 'monster' with undue disgust in his voice.

"Daniel is not a monster." I stated.

"Monster or not," A woman, Linda, stated, looking up from a flashing alert on her electronic clipboard "He's here."


	3. Welcoming

**Dan**

* * *

The tram slowed to a halt in a desolate, blank-faced concrete tunnel underneath the elegantly decorated, well-maintained main floor. My platform automatically filed out with the guards in silence to match the unnatural quiet of the seemingly endless tunnel, the hissing of the security drones' pneumatic servos being the only evidence of activity to be heard.

I was brought before yet another soulless concrete wall that, in contrast to the aged pipe systems and wiring that lined the tunnel, was clearly new and bore in large blocky red lettering _'Habitation Simulator #9J. Extreme Specimen Containment Model_'.

I hate being referred to as 'The Specimen' so the mere fact that my new cell was clearly labeled 'Extreme Specimen Containment' added to my daily growing aggravation. I'd almost prefer it being labeled 'Here Be Monsters' so anyone with half a brain would understand I am an admittedly violent man that doesn't like being watched like a zoo animal through a one-way mirror.

The tunnel filled with a familiar snarl that echoed into a resounding roar. Not that one again... Clattering of claws on steel came from a staircase a few dozen feet away from me, which I replied to with a wordless growl. Couldn't that damn scientist exert control over that thing as willingly as he does me?

The solid black wolf jumped down the steps, sliding sideways on the concrete floor, red eyes flaring at mine. The five-foot tall beast took a wide stance on all fours, giving a guttural roar before charging. I could only brace for impact.

The dome clanged as it hit the ground from that sideways blow, jostling me on my side so the collar's prongs began digging deeper in my skin. The wolf's humongous paw slammed against the ghost-proof glass above my face, claws scrapping harshly against the dome. He raised his head in a premature victory roar before sinking his jaw into my container.

My split-second of rage and instinctual urge to fight gave way to a new plan that formed as the monster's fangs broke tiny spider web cracks in the glass. In his enraged fury, this otherwise worthless creature would destroy all the obstacle in my way and at the same time provide me one chance at escape. One chance is all I need.

"Porter!"

"No!" I snarled to myself. Not him! Not now!

The wolf froze, releasing its crushing jaw from the dome, ears bent back to catch the sound of hurried footsteps tapping lightly on the metal stairway.

"What are you _waiting _for?" I snapped at the beast "You want me dead or **not**?" It roared in my face, razor sharp incisors ready to break me free.

"Porter!" He snapped again as he reached the bottom of the staircase. What I wouldn't give for one hand free and be able to incinerate that wretched man!

The bastard was as un-intimidating as the rest; weak, scrawny and powerless! He patted his thigh, before stating "Porter, come."

The wolf gave a low growl, a growl I matched, before backing up from my knocked over caging to his little master's side. The wolf's fur rapidly receded as it stood on its back leg, slowly shrinking into its humanoid form, a dark skinned, long haired Indian with sufficient muscles to rival even my own.

I was righted by the security drones, who apparently couldn't have been bothered to do their job at the time of the attack, as that smug little smart-ass got closer to me then I cared for, seemingly disappointed. His short blond hair and gold rimmed monocle matched that khaki colored 'adventurer' safari outfit he wore under the white flowing lab coat that every other person I've seen in this place wear.

"You _do _understand that it was not at all polite to agitate Porter like you did?" he said, his tone as controlled, all-knowing and aggravating as Clockwork. Only Clockwork rarely addressed me while I was trapped, left alone in silence to fume in my prison. Unlike these oh-so-intelligent scientists, the Time Master never ordered me around, merely stating that my younger self had forged a new future for himself, effectively defeating both me and my plans of self-preservation.

"Fine," I spat in pure sarcasm "next time your little mutant tries going at me again, I'll try to remember my manners... while I splatter his blood on the wall." The wolfman gave a deep growl, puffing out his bare chest in a pathetic display of strength.

Another enraging feature of this man, whether he's braver or just dumber than his colleagues, is his entirely human-like features. Caucasian skin, blond hair, erect posture; other then the slightly more pointed ears, he seemed utterly human. Which is why I can never allow myself to bend to their will. I can not allow a ghost of my strength to be rendered helpless by a race whose only ability is in advanced technology.

"Daniel," I huffed just hearing him say that name. How did that bastard know exactly what name I hated the most? I certainly never told him. "Murder is illegal. Secondly, Porter is no more mutated than you or I." Hmm... Am I mutated?, I mused, ignoring his comment. Well, I wasn't born with pale blue skin, or even with any ghost powers. If I am, I'm mutated for the better, into a superior being of unstop– _formerly_ unstoppable strength. "I have already stepped up to defend you several times more then I probably should have. If you insist on continuing this aggressive behavior, the Wizard Science Committee of Technology could cut my funding on this little project you've become."

"Oh, no..." I said flatly "the 'Committee'. Whatever shall we do?" Wizards, they call themselves... A race possibly more annoying then humans. They don't even have magic powers, only technology that was so advanced, they could con ignorant humans into believe they were all-powerful sorcerers. And I'm pretty sure the urge to lecture at any and every opportunity is part of the race's genes as well.

"You," the Wizard raised his voice, invoking only my mild interest in his words "Will be forced to undergo a complete Plasectomy and–"

"A _what_?"

"In layman's terms, they will surgically remove the very source of your powers and you will be forced to serve the remainders of your life as a manual laborer! _I_ don't want that and I know _you_ don't want that!"

"I didn't want the _last_ surgery you gave me!" I shouted back. That damnable converter still ached whenever I turned to the left sharply.

The Wizard sighed, looking down at the ground before rubbing his forehead with his hand "Clearly, you are in no mood to be reasonable..."

"No shit." I muttered under my breath.

"Guards!" The mechs turned to face the latest in an unbelievably long line of irritant in my life. "Move him into the introduction position."

'_Yes, sir._' they replied in unison before stepping away from my confining platform as the scientist and his pet returned up the stairs before a metal door slammed over the entrance.

Down from the ceiling, three walls were lowered, the locks clanking as they isolated me from the guards. On my platform, the clamps holding the slightly cracked dome in place hissed before releasing their hold. I shifted my weight, more then ready to be left to my own devices...If only these machines went faster...

A crane lowered from the ceiling, lifting the dome with it as it retracted. "Lasers." I growled darkly through my fangs "Turn. The lasers. Off." The lasers were the most commonly used device used to restrict my movement and, unfortunately, they were extremely hard to fight against, my struggle regularly ending in vain.

The wall I was facing groaned loudly before sinking into the floor. I noted the wall's thickness, four or six feet of solid concrete, only I knew from experience this was Ghost-proof and resistant to any attack I launched against it.

An intense bright light lowered into my vision as the wall finished receding, preventing me from getting a good first look at my cell. There was a brief alarm sounding, to which I widened my stance, ready to take off first chance I had. The alarm stopped, the energy leashes died and I charged through the air.


	4. Home

**Dan**

* * *

From the corner of my eye, I spotted a darkly tinted window and immediately shot towards it at top speed, charging a blast in my tight newly-freed fist before slamming it into the window. In the darkness of my shadow, a scrawny scientist, sitting less then two feet from my attack, banged his head on the keyboard before falling limply out of his chair, out cold.

Several other scientists in the darkened observation area dropped whatever they held and ran screaming from the room. Leaving him and three other scientists, hiding their faces behind clipboards and files. I put both hands against the blast-proof barrier with a angry sneer. That wizard's bravery was infecting the others. Though obviously frightened, that was the first time any others had dared to stand their ground.

"Percival, It's staring at us." I could just make out the brunette woman's words through the glass.

"He's curious." My handler answered, not a single twinge of fear in his voice.

"Then why did _It_ come for us?" A pudgy man whimpered behind a handful of papers.

"For the last time, Albert," Percival stated "Daniel is male, not an 'It'."

I floated back, arms crossed over my chest. I glanced down at my domed cell to see what exactly I was up against. It looked about 1/4 miles in diameter which, while a great improvement over my last holding facility, still meant I was confined to a specific area after ten years of roaming where I pleased as I pleased. The ground was covered in grass and clumped areas of trees, a fairly good place to hide from the ever watching eyes of scientists. Of course, that meant I couldn't burn it at will. Oh, well...

I aimlessly drifted passed a waterfall as I scoured my new cell, looking for even the slightest weakness to exploit. There were a few islands, floating at various heights leading up to just below a much larger version of that Ecto-Siphon thing hanging from the ceiling.

I charged a fair-sized ball of energy in my hand and waited. Strips of green energy peeled off and drifted up into the siphon. Great... I was floating barely half-way up from the ground and the machine was able to whittle my attacks down to half their size in seconds. Lord knows what would happen if I touched it, or even got too close to it.

I sighed at my predicament. At some point between going back in time to ensure I would exist in the future and my defeat at what was essentially my own hands, my life became some unseen force's bitch. And I'm **not** happy about that.

As I looked down, contemplating whether I should destroy the island below me, I noticed a black door peeking out from behind the floating rock as it drifted slowly through the air. I glanced around, spotting several doors; three or four the same shade of purple along with a yellow and a brown one. This was meant to simulate the Ghost Zone, I thought, and that meant there was a good chance the doors went somewhere. Anywhere would be better then a place I knew a small army of nerds was watching me through the spaced-out observation windows that formed a broken-up ring in my 'habitat'.

I dove down to the black door and opened it. The first thing I noticed is the uncanny resemblance the room had to my old bedroom of my youth. Only the bed was sideways, up against the wall in the corner with black covers decorated with the golden star and swirling waves that made the Veneficus Science logo. On the opposite wall of the bed was a TV, that I idly flipped on and off just to make sure it was what I thought it was.

What I later found out to be the computer was sitting on a dark brown wooden desk. It was just a regular keyboard, wireless mouse and a black half-circle that projected the screen like a hologram. I thought that if I could get to the internet of the human world, I could find some outlet from my aggression by toying with my past self, telling him I knew his secret, demanding random acts to appease me into silence. A small way to relieve pent up aggression, but at least it was one.

My thoughts were interrupted by a rather pleasant one. I closed the door so I was inside the bedroom standing in silence as I thought. There were no windows on the walls, just a blue-green colored wallpaper, a clock, and a bookshelf of various topics, but no window. I wasn't been watched.

A quiet tap from above proved me wrong. I groaned and looked up to see people quickly shuffling off the transparent glass they stood on. "Of course." I stated out loud, half to myself, half to the scientist gazing through the clear-glass ceiling "I forgot how I needed to be watched... _**all**_** the time**!" I slammed the door open, not bothering to close it before taking off to the brown door just above.

I simply backhanded it open and was greeted with a contemporary styled kitchen separated from a small living room by a counter and stool. I put my face in my hand, so many things just hitting ever sour note they could in my mind. I had destroyed so many homes that were designed just like this. Now, I was forced to live in them. I never told them about my past as ether hero or villain. Not one thing about where I came from or what I've done. This was definitely the work of Karma.

I browsed around, finding only the one-way mirror in front of the counter/table and well-stocked cabinets, another larger TV, couch, another bookshelf and a radio. It was beginning to annoy me that I couldn't find anything to help my escape, but then again, these people had proved to me repeatedly they are _not_ fools.

After seeing some scientist noting my mild curiosity in my new cell, I left. I hated, and still hate, that no matter what I did, they analyzed my every move intensely.

It was sometime in the evening when the scientists abandoned the observation stations after I wasted an afternoon lounging in the forest, away from prying eyes, after giving a few more doctors a violent near-encounter. The bright light that filled the dome had been dimmed to twilight brightness when I got up off the branch I perched on and decided that if one of the purple door held nothing that could help me get out of this damn hellhole of a laboratory, I would burn whatever _was _in there.

I threw the door open, charging a blast in my hand ready to incinerated what I half-expected to be some sort of laundry room.

I really didn't know what to make it at first. It was a rectangular box, about five feet long, made of the transparent unbreakable glass that made the window of my exhibit. The box rose up to the ceiling with a circular opening that lead to a pipe made of the same thick glass.

"No." I told myself . I rose up to the start of the tunnel, for a better look. The pipe went on for several feet before splitting into a pipe going down and a pipe going around a corner to the right. It was just big enough for me to fly through with about a foot in every direction. "No!" I shouted "**I **_**refuse**_** be put in a hamster trail**!"


	5. Contained Chaos

**Dr. Percival Goddards Ph.D**

* * *

It was around 7:30 pm, just a couple of hours after I was done with my duties for the day and I was still lamenting Daniel's relatively positive reaction to his new home. There were no explosions, no death threats and only a few of his typical scare tactics in attempts to frighten my coworkers off. Poor Johan got a mild concussion from fainting at Daniel's vain attack.

Porter and I shared a dorm in the residency sector of the Veneficus Science complex. It got somewhat cramped, the dorm being about the size of an apartment, but we managed just fine. In fact, we've always shared a room ever since we met about ten years ago.

I was a junior in the Academy when I found the body of a downtrodden young werewolf badly injured by the side of the road. I managed to carry him home and set his broken bone myself before taking him to a hospital. The boy was only thirteen or fourteen at the time and said his name was Kota Piedego. He had made a rather rash move by abandoning his pack after his father was killed and replaced as chief by a younger, stronger male, as was the natural order of werewolf tribes.

I knew he could never return home, nor would he ever want to. My family is, I suppose, more upper-class so I convinced my parents that Kota wouldn't be a burden to us financially. They agreed but I would have to ensure he learned to fit in with wizard society. Thus far, my only progress has been getting him to understand English (although he never speaks it) and to wear normal pants in lieu of a loincloth (He still refuses to wear a shirt).

Kota, now going by the name Porter, was already asleep on the couch by the TV, suffice to say were-wolves are mostly nocturnal. I had finished dinner's dishes myself, which I prefer doing myself instead of merely using the dish-washer, when the intercom in the kitchen buzzed on. I heard Porter jump to his feet with a growl as the shrill voice of one of my colleagues, Trevor, spoke.

"Percival!" He panted over screams and muffled explosions "You must get down to the main foyer at _once_! Your monster is on the _rampage_!"

"Daniel _escaped_!" I answered, Porter growling loudly now.

"Well... no, but– I-I– J-Just get **down** here!"

"If he didn't escape, how is he–?"

"He _found_ a way!"

I took a hard-light hover board I used for some of my work in the field and sped off to the foyer, Porter sprinting below me in his wolf form. Making an unintentionally dramatic entrance by bursting through the door, I slowed to a halt and folded out a small compatible keyboard. I quickly went to the three-dimensional schematics of Daniel's habitat that flash on my monocle's screen/lens.

As Trevor had said, Daniel had not escaped, as indicated by the green humanoid dot that was tearing through the tunnel system I designed. "At his current path," I told Porter "Daniel should be here in three... two... one."

On cue, Daniel slingshot around a sharp corner into the foyer, green ectoplasmic energy whipping around his hands as he was yelling in wordless rage. So much for a positive reaction to his new home... Faced with another turn, he tackled against the tunnel at great speed, most likely in hopes of breaking through. When it was clear that he failed, he turn the corner, scaring my coworkers away as he passed them by. Every turn or wall he faced, he rammed before turning away fruitlessly at high speeds.

The tunnels were bound to the walls by steel bands that doubled as a receiver for the Ectoplasmic Converter's constant energy output. They also had just the thing needed to stop him until he calmed down. I dragged a line through the displayed tunnel imaged behind where Daniel was at that time and another in the path of his obvious course. As soon as the line when down in front of Daniel, I heard a very solid thud and a loud stream of curses from the tunnel. I dragged a line just behind him, folded the keyboard up and slid it into my pocket.

Daniel was clutching his face as he swore under his breath, obviously hitting his face very hard at an excess of 200 miles per hour. A light blue ghost-shield buzzed quietly in front of him from a metal ring as well as the ring three or four feet behind him. Daniel was floating in the tunnel in a kneeling position when I approached him.

Daniel took his hands from his face and snarled at Porter, who, quite literally, was howling with laughter. "Li disbati lia edro en la muro!" Porter yelled in uncontrollable cackle.

"Yes, yes," I responded in a controlled manner "He _did_ hit the shield fairly hard, but we shouldn't laugh at another's misfortunes, now should we?"

"Uh-huh." Porter nodded with a wide smile.

"No, we don't." I scolded gently under my breath at him.

I looked back up to Daniel, muttering as he tested the shield's strength. He turned and threw a punch on the shield behind him before standing up as much as he could in the three foot tall tunnel and seemingly trying to push the top of the tunnel off with all his physical strength.

"Daniel," I said, shaking my head "that tunnel is six inches thick. You can_not_ break it,"

"As if I'll believe you!" He grunted through his struggle "I will _**not**_ sit back and be forced to run around in a **hamster trail**!"

"It's not a hamster trail!" I corrected "It's an Ectoplasm Resistant Exploration Vent for your enrichment."

"Enrichme–?" Daniel sputtered in anger. He seemed to somehow put even more effort into breaking through the Exploration Vent. "Use all the scientific jargon you want, you son-of-a-bitch! It won't delay–ERRRAAH!–the inevitable!"

I sighed. Poor delusional soul. I turned away from Daniel's struggles, turning the miniature shields off as I left. It sounded as if he immediately took off at full speed, though not ramming the glass tubes as he had before.

"Oh, Porter..." I moaned to my friend "That man is as stubborn as an angst-ridden teenager..."


	6. Restless Peace

**Dan**

* * *

I don't completely remember what I did after being given a goddamn hamster trail to run around fruitlessly in. All I know is I was _very_ pissed, there was a lot of screaming and I was fairly sore in the shoulders when I finally stopped to rest. In retrospect, trying to slam through ghost-proof glass at around 250 miles an hour wasn't the best plan I could've made.

The habi-trail seemed to thread its way through most, if not all, open congregational areas of the complex. Foyers, hallways, ect. but just before the tunnel would've gone into a working laboratory or office, it ended with a larger, but still pretty small room just big enough for me to stand and do a little pacing in.

Sometimes they had little benches, other times the floor was just a flame-retardant cushion, my 'bedding' undoubtably. I even found that they placed an art easel and supplies in the enclosed patio-like room above what looked to be the main tram station.

In a way, that clear glass tube system made me feel even more powerless over my current situation. In my first cell, I only saw the other half of the specimen containment facility and whatever quivering scientist that dared to come to try to study me. Now, I could watch everyone but never be able to attack. See perfect targets but never even touch them. Exactly the way I felt the first time the gigantic ghost shield over Amity Park, in effect banishing me to the outer wastelands I created out of my former home town.

I was now pacing myself at a casual speed, actually considering where alternate tunnels might lead me, not at all knowing where I was, where I was going or even where I started from. In my rage, I blindly rocketed around corners, not even thinking of just how vast this so-called 'Exploration Vent' system really was.

The entire building had dimmed its lights so I was using an energy orb to find my way though. The complex was dead silent, the work day having ended about an hour or so ago, so my obvious lostness wasn't seen by any condescending wizards. I kind of liked the silence, but maybe just only for the idea that I was alone.

I came to another glass-walled room, slightly taller and larger then most others I had found. The open area I saw was split into two platforms. One was wide and long, extending out a few hundred feet from the wall of kiosks and booths out into what looked like a canyon carved by the placid river that flowed beneath it. The second platform, secured about a dozen feet above the first, only reached out about a third of the length with still more food stands lined against the wall.

It was some kind of cafeteria by the looks of it.

My eyes drifted up towards the source of a bright, light-purple light. The canyon's walls was silhouetted by the light of a purple full moon, cresting over the jagged edge of the rocky face. My mouth dropped open just a bit, but it looked exactly like what it was. A straight unobstructed path to the outside.

Before actually doing any thinking, I jumped from my crouched position at the edge of the tube and, seconds later, found myself pressed flat against the transparent wall. Idiot, I told myself, how could you forget about the glass? I somewhat peeled myself off and took a step back, hands against the smooth, cold surface of my caging.

Faint green clouds slowly blew in front of the gleaming moon. Perfect for a late night flight. A time when even _I_ could feel somewhat at peace for a short while; whether I was exiled to the crumbling outlands of Amity Park or chained and caged as a tortured, forsaken slave to science. Of course, that was _before_ Clockwork meddled in my personal affaires and ruined my life. That was back when I was the sole master of my destiny. There was no peace for me now.

I drifted backwards and sat on the edge of the tunnel, staring up at the sky. No particularly predominant thought ran through my head really... I tried guessing how long I'd been trapped in the tunnel system, this research facility, and even the thermos back when I was in the Time Master's custody. Four months sounded about right for the thermos, month-and-a-half, maybe two for the lab in general and probably around four hours in the hamster trail. I seemed to be getting trapped a lot more then I cared for lately...

I even gave Sam and Tucker a thought or two during my moment of brooding. The time we spent together between me taking my younger self's place as Danny Fenton and the little hero's triumphant return and subsequent altering of the time stream. It felt so foreign to have friends again, if only for a short time and under false pretenses.

I distinctly remember Tucker calling me 'Evil'. He wouldn't if he knew exactly the kind of hell I lived through after the explosion to get to where I am. I didn't just randomly decided to murder everyone I knew and destroy the town where I was born and raised. Perhaps if they knew why they wouldn't call me 'evil'. What I've gone through, what I've been forced to do... forced to become...

But no one _ever_ asked me why. 'Evil Villains' like myself don't deserve that amount of kindness.

I glanced down at my feet, surprised to find metallic bands around my ankles. They weren't there before I was tranquilized and strapped in place for the transfer to my new cell. Of course, I tried yanking them off, to no avail, and growled as I realized they were probably there so they could secure me down with more of those damn lasers. Great...

The moon had risen above the canyon face and shined high in the midnight sky, seemingly spotlighting the transparent cell, making the smudges I made by hitting the wall with my face visible. Now snapped out of my mildly depressing thoughts, I turned sideways and put my feet against the pipe's wall, resting my head against the opposite side. It was decidedly not too uncomfortable for me, so I crossed my shackled arms over my chest and turned away from the moon. I needed the sleep more then I needed the peace.


	7. Bad Mornings

**Dr. Percival Goddards Ph.D**

**

* * *

**I awoke the next morning and, after watching Porter subconsciously kick his feet (most likely running in his dream), jostled the man into semi-consciousness, showered, changed into my work clothes and shaved, as usual.

I _wanted_ to begin my day with a simple cup of coffee but by the time I was dressed and ready to start brewing my beverage, I found Porter watching TV as he was scooping the last of the coffee beans into his mouth, not unlike cereal. I decided it was unfair to scold Porter; I never actually 'called dibs' on the last of the coffee beans, so I had him gather my gear and we took a tram to the cafeteria.

I purchased a cappuccino and some nutrition-enhanced bagels, as well as paid for Porter swiping a half-pound's worth of bacon, before going down to the cafeteria's lower platform. I waved to some coworkers I would be working with later that day as they passed on the tram that glided down the white guidance beam before sitting down for breakfast.

After only a few bites, I noticed Porter crouched down on all fours, snickering to himself while intensely staring at his target. I followed his gaze and saw Daniel had nestled on the edge of the Exploration Vent to sleep. I have to admit he looked rather charming while asleep, curled up like a newborn pup, and I wasn't the only one to notice; other people were steering clear of the area, most likely to avoid disturbing his slumber. Then Porter's true intent hit me.

"Porter, do not–!"

Porter interrupted me with a shush as he lowered his head "La cxasi estas sur."

"Porter, please be reasonable!"

Porter started slinking off quietly, stalking the unsuspecting specter. Halfway there, he started shifting into his wolf form and picked up speed until he was in a full dash. Before I could give Daniel any warning, Porter slid to a stop in front of the glass and gave a tremendous roar.

Daniel shot to his feet in a split second, heart rate doubling in an instant according to my monocle's readout, before blindly firing an ectoplasmic blast at Porter. The beam ricocheted off the proofed glass, forcing Daniel to duck as it shot off and rebounded inside the tunnel before disappearing from view.

Daniel snarled and rushed up against the glass, glaring quite intensely as Porter growled, claws extended. "You're _pushing_ it, wolfie!" He growled.

Once again, I had to intervene. "Gentlemen, please!" I urged "Honestly, you two are the most severe case of Extra-personal-Alpha-Male Disorder I've ever seen!" Daniel's confused look lasted only a moment before he stepped back from the glass, looking away as he bore his fangs in anger. "Though I really shouldn't scold you, Daniel. Wouldn't want you to be deterred from enjoying your Exploration Vent so much, seeing as you've yet to leave it since you found it."

"I'm **not** enjoying it." I was disappointed to hear him growl.

"Then why stay there?" I asked. Daniel lower his head slightly, pouting as he grumbled unintelligibly. "Pardon?"

"I said I can't_** find **_any way _out_ of this labyrinth of a tunnel system!" He growled.

"Use the door." I answered politely.

"_I can't __**find **__the door_!" Daniel seethed through his teeth.

I glanced not five feet away from Daniel at the purple door directly behind him layed into the glass wall directly next to the pipe entrance of the Exploration vent. I heard Porter snicker quietly beside me. "Daniel, just use the other doors then..."

"What other door?" he threw his hand up in the air. I drew a circle with my finger, showing his to turn around. Daniel gruffly turned 90 degrees to his left, which was 90 degrees short of seeing the door. He leaned against the clear glass wall and scowled at me. "Well, whadda ya know. There's nothing here!" He snapped, clearly ill-tempered.

"Ninety more degrees, Daniel, if you please." I sighed, drawing another circle with my finger.

Daniel let out an aggravated sigh and turned more to the left, his shoulders slumping when he saw the obvious purple door he somehow missed.

This would not end well...


	8. Sob Stories

**Dan**

**

* * *

**Are you _frickin' __kidding_ me?, I yelled in my head, breathing heavily through my teeth; I had been lost for over five freaking hours just to find I had missed the way out all this time! I couldn't allow myself to lose control of myself; not in front of him.

To him, I was just a rat in a maze... A rat with no cheese for a reward! (Ironically, I don't care much for cheese, despite being half-cheesehead) The least they could do is reward my pain and suffering by stimulating the pleasure center of my brain or something... But then again, I'd probably become addicted to that and end up a tool for whatever they'd want me to do.

Better yet, I'd preferred if they sacrificed one of their own to me like the gods of olde. In retrospect, I might have actually left Amity Park alone, or at least not try as hard to destroy it if every month or so they sent some unlucky bastard outside the shield with offerings for me. I'd kill him and take even more pleasure out of it then normal because I knew this guy _knew_ he was doomed instead of just being in the wrong place at the wrong time...

Wait, what was I talking about?... Ah, yes... my psychological torment.

I put my hand on the knob, trying not to crush it in my fist, before swinging it open. It, of course, led right back to the concrete dome that formed my main enclosure. I was glancing around to find something to do (it gets pretty boring not destroying anything) when I saw a purple door left open just below me.

I _lost_ it.

"Are you _shitting_ me!" I yelled "**I was lost in that thing **_**all night**_** just to get twenty feet from where I STARTED! I **_**hate **_**this place!**" Energy was whipping around my fists. I was pissed and someone or something was going to pay. "**I wanna tear this whole place ****DOWN**!" I released my rage in twin blasts of mammoth proportions out.

The siphon sucked up half the energy I gave but I managed to make darkened scorch marks on the concrete walls of the dome, not to mention the satisfying muffed screams of cowards from behind glass.

But it was still nowhere _near_ satisfying enough.

When I saw that the only damage I had done was minimal at best, I put my hands on my forehead, trying to think of _something_, anything, really. Nothing ever broke in this place and I didn't even know if it was the damned ghost-proof materials or my current weakened state that was stopping me. Either option was pretty depressing.

I had tried everything! I already knew that even my ghostly wail wouldn't cut it with the glass, and smashing into it only hurt me! I tried every trick, every gimmick, every underhanded tactic I knew and they would either ignore it, catch it thanks to one of their damn gizmos or just not believe me. The only thing I _haven't _tried was...

No; my handler wouldn't fall for my human disguise. He's stated once or twice that his monocle sees ectoplasmic energy, and a ghost of my power could never be suppressed by my human skin.

The other wizards... they didn't have little scanners all the time like he did. I cracked a smile as the plan fell together. I'd merely have to find a hidden corner of the hamster trail, somewhere no one could see me change, then I'd yell for the nearest scientist and say the evil ghost that was in the tunnels tricked me and locked me in here. The soft-heart wizards would undoubtably run off to open the tunnel systems to save the innocent teenager inside.

My smile faded as I glanced to see him and that damn wolf helper of his still staring at me, studying my emotions through the opening of the intra-dimensional doorway. The wolf-man bore his teeth at me; he knew I was up to something. The wizard's expression was softer, an expression of pity with a dash of worry. He probably knew I was thinking of something too. Damn!

"_Attention_," A mechanized female voice stated, muffed by both the glass and the distance from me and the door the sound was coming from "_Would Dr. Percival Goddards please make his way to Test Chamber #17b? Your team members are awaiting your arrival._"

"Huh." the wizard shrugged "How can the Physics Team be waiting for me already?" He asked his man-servant as I watched "Why, it's only– **8:47**!"

The wolf-man mouthed his masters words silently as the wizard ran his hand through his hair. "Oh, bloody hell..." the wizard continued "By the time we get suited up, we'll be over an _hour_ late! We could get suspended for this!" The were-wolf's raised an eyebrow "Well, _I'll_ be suspended. You... technically don't work here..." he said hesitantly "But still! How are we going to–?"

"Hey!" I yelled at duo "Instead of contemplating how late you both are, how about just _**leaving**_!"

The wizard jumped slightly at my snappy tone but quickly shuffling around to find some fast mode of transportation. "Yes! Of course! I mustn't make myself any more late." The oversized wolf rolled his eyes and slipped the golf-bag-like pack off, grabbing its handles with his teeth. "But how on Atheneum would I ever–?" What's 'Atheneum' anyway? I had considered asking him once or twice but I figured I'd be in for a hour's worth of lecturing and since it was used so rarely, I doubted it had anything to do with me.

The wolf bumped the side of his head against his master "Akiri sur." he motioned for the wizard to get on his back.

"Oh dear." I heard the wizard mutter to himself before he cautiously sat of the wolf's back, just behind the shoulder blades. The wolf growled at me once more with a hateful expression I matched before blazing off out of my limited vision.

I casually flew back through the door and floated just above the floor as I watched the other wizards eating and conversing. I couldn't wait put my plan into action, so much so that I had to resist changing right then and there.

Changing into my teenage human form was always slightly uncomfortable, like wearing a jumpsuit three sizes too small, and much to my chagrin, it did not allow me to pass through ghost shields. However, it had proven useful whenever I needed to hide from the anti-ghost army Valerie rallied against me. But that was when I was younger, weaker, back when I actually had a need to hide.

As I pondered my escape from this hell, I began thinking of all possible variables. Every ten days or so, the scientists would strap me down and drain the ecto-converter, and myself, of most of my energy, which was both very painful and served to weaken me further, at least for two or three days afterwards. It had to have been about a week since the last draining, so I'd probably be better off waiting until I recovered from the next one.

Since most of the tunnels and room of the hamster trail ('Exploration Vent' was just his pathetic attempt at sparing my pride, which it did _not_) were supported from the ceiling, I had to change near the cafeteria, where the room actually touched the floor. The cafeteria also had the highest concentration of people, so my fake cries for help would not go unnoticed.

I crossed my arms over my chest as two scrawny wizards, one brunet the other with dulled-red hair, were pushing themselves cautiously towards my glass cage. The two were so busy whispering to each other urgently that they gasped and jumped back when they found themselves face-to-glass-to-face with me, less then five feet between us.

"Ask it!" The brunet whined through his teeth, pushing the redhead closer to me as he coward behind him. "You're the people person between the two of us."

"Are you mad?" the redhead said in a terrified hushed yell. "First of all, I am _not_ a people person! Second, that... _thing_–" Ugh, _again_ with the depersonalization! I huffed in annoyance, only because there was nothing I could do about it. "–is _barely_ a person!"

It was one thing to _think _that people thought of me as more animal then man, it's another when you get direct confirmation from someone who acts like you're not even there. I decided my usual silent routine wouldn't help me here so I spoke up. "I'd beg to differ."

The two flinched before urgently looking around, hoping I was talking to someone else. Either that or they were searching for the great Percival, their so-called 'Monster Tamer'. No such luck in either case.

I touched down on the floor, putting my hands behind my back. "That's right; I'm talking to you." I purposefully kept my tone of voice light, not to make them think I enjoyed talking to them, but that I was up to something sneaky. After all, why else would an 'evil villain' be happy if not because of the formulation of some maniacal plot?

The redhead pointed nervously at himself before his friend again whispered "Ask it!" into his ear. I nodded with a smirk, casual cracking my knuckles before willing an ectoplasmic flame into my hand.

I heard the redhead gulp before he stuttered his question "Tha-that in-insignia on-on your c-chest." He pointed at the ghostly 'D' on my suit.

I glanced down at it for just a split second before starting to toss the small ecto-fire back and forth from hand to hand. "What about it?" I replied in a genuinely bored tone.

"That's the insignia of the halfa, Danny Fenton." he stated "And we–"

"Don't you mean Danny Phantom?" I scoffed. They couldn't have known the duel identities, that Fenton and Phantom were one and the same. As paper-thin as the disguise was, I had been too careful about changing as a teen to have let some race of nerds that lived in some distant recesses of what looked to be the Ghost Zone see me go ghost. But then again, Jazz seemed to have figured it out and she was just a smartalecky sixteen-year-old.

"Fenton, Phantom. Same human!" The brunet snapped, still hiding in safety behind his little friend. So much for the I-was-too-smart-for-them theory... Fun how teenagers always think they're so smart until they grow up and look back on the idiotic things they've done or thought.

"We know he's the same person," the wizard explained. Great, more lecturing... "because we wizards have been watching those Fentons since before the boy was even _born._ We witnessed the accident that gave the boy his powers in secret and have watched the child closely ever since."

I froze, my self-made fire missing my hand and burning out of existence on the floor. They knew Danny Fenton. If they've been studying him/us since he/we were born, they'd undoubtably recognize my human form as Danny Fenton's. And if Danny Fenton just randomly appeared in my cell, they might stop and ask themselves how that could be possible instead of blindly rushing to help an innocent child.

And they noticed I bore Danny Phantom's insignia! If they figured out my past, I'd never hear the end of it. I'd be subjected to endless psychological treatments, even more poking and prodding into my body and, God forbid, I would be forced to return to my heroic origin against my will. I don't know how they could, but something tells me they'd find a way, if they haven't already.

Now, the only way my human trick could work is if Danny Fenton was brought here, just long enough for word to get around that he was here. If I could manipulate someone here to do that, then distract or dispose of my weaker self, I could have a chance at escaping. Just one chance is all I would need.

"Yes," The redhead agreed, nervously adjusting his shirt collar, which only reminded me of my own collar. "A-And we were wondering i-if you were related to him a-at all... And if Danny Phantom was a ba-banshee as well."

Related? That's it!

I sighed heavily, somberly, almost dramatically as I turned away to hide my wide grin. The two moved to the side of the glass room, cuing me to hide my brimming face. I put on an expression of regret as I put my back against the wall and slid down to the ground.

"Something wrong?" The redhead asked, the terror in his voice now replaced by vague concern.

I sighed again, looking up at nothing, perfecting my act as I went along "Just thinking of things that can never happen now, apologies that can never be made... Advice that can never be given to my... little half-brother." They could check my DNA against that statement. I was more-or-less half-Danny Fenton. Technically, I could be considered Danny Phantom's half-brother.

What added to my story was the so-called 'Banshee Gene', which, from what I've heard, was a supposed gene that allowed whatever ghost that carried it the awesome power of the ghostly wail. I had that power and my weaker self had that power. What I hated most about the whole thing was that I was being imprisoned for study for having it while my other self was allowed to roam free.

"You're Danny Fenton's half brother?"

"On his ghost side, of course." I answered, nearly forgetting to add the somber tone I needed to be believable. "But, yes, I am." I got up off the floor and turned my back to them "But unlike him, I made some bad decisions that led to where and who I am now and," I shook my head with a sigh "and now I can't even give my little brother warning on how to avoid becoming like me..."

I desperately wanted to look at their faces, most likely painted with pity and shock, to see my manipulative handiwork. Instead, I opted for a more melancholy exit and silently flew up into the clear-glass tunnel and took off.

Once I was sure the two wizards could no longer see me, I couldn't help but laugh to myself. Percival's constant proclamation of my humanity must have started seeping through the skulls of his co-workers, leaving the cowards defenseless against any sob-story I could come up with. Although my pathetic handler would probably never fall for my acting, (his monocle could detect my heart rate was well as ectoplasm, and often called my bluffs and lies) his unskilled associates would swallow it hook, line and sinker.

That blond wizard would lure my weaker self to me, on the promise of an apology, an once I escaped, I would end _both_ of their lives. I didn't need my weaker self to survive anymore. I didn't have to hold myself back as I had before. He would charge into battle, over-confident in his inferior abilities, never even suspecting that he had only glimpsed a fraction of my true power.

Out in one of the large main halls, I paused to gaze out through the tunnel at the bustling groupings of wizards that were passing me by, not even bothering to glance in my direction. I landed in a kneeling position and put my hands against the glass. I _would_ be free again. And on that day, they'll learn all they'd ever want to know about a banshee's power... first-hand.


	9. Daily Grind

**Dr. Percival Goddards Ph.D**

**

* * *

**I always found riding Porter to be both terrifying and thrilling. His speed is tremendous, powered by thick, primal muscles granted to him through generations of natural selection that creates skilled warriors from birth. The constant shifting bumps as he ran was not the terrifying by any means. The terror came from sharp turns around corners on freshly waxed floors.

Porter slid to a stop and I used the momentum as I jumped off to help quicken my mad dash to today's science team. The door slid out of my way as I approached the observatory of Test chamber #17b. The team was clearly impatient with my tardiness, but nothing was said.

Near the door on the opposite end of the long room was a row of five orange green-striped Hazardous Environment suits, each hooked up in a clear-glass charger-pod. Now, these suits are not just spandex and Kevlar rolled together into a skin-tight jumpsuit meant to stave off chemical or radiation poisoning. No, they also serve as armor and bio-enhancement for a race as un-athletic as _Homo Sapiens Veneficus_ (the technical term of Wizards that literally translates into 'Wise Magic Man').

Awkward greetings took place (At least, they were awkward from _my_ side of the conversation) and myself and Porter, who had changed into his bipedal form, opened the first two pods. The front half of the suit artificially turned intangible with a light beep. I positioned myself so that I lined up with the back part of the armored suit and backed into it. Once the suit sensed I was alined with it, it returned to its tangible state and discharged all wiring that ran from the charger-pod before the suit's helmet lowered and locked into place.

While the interactive computer came to life and started reading out data from various sources in the room, I helped Porter get into the second suit. Footsteps came from behind me. "May I assume your unappreciated absence was due to that little monster project of your's?" I froze. The woman's voice was one no wizard in this facility cared to hear, especially in such a disappointingly irritated voice.

I promptly turned around to address her "Ms. Dr. Administrator, sir-uh ma'am?" I blurted. I heard Porter groan to himself at my lack of social grace when dealing with women of higher authority then me. Not that I have anything against a successful women, mind you, it's just that primarily, I find them a tad overbearing and, when faced with a failure of a lower level employee, well... the human phrase 'There is no serpent's fang so sharp as a woman's tongue' comes to mind quite readily.

"Dr. Chaucer is fine." She stated, idly glancing at her very, _very_ sharp-looking nails "I just popped by to warn you ahead of time that a representative from Wizard Science Committee is going to be stopping by later this week to examine your little monster's habitat to ensure it's humane and worth the half-million dollars they dumped into making it."

"With all due respect, Dr. Chaucer," I replied rather timidly "Daniel is not a monster and once I can deduce the cause of his distemper..."

"I'm not concerned with Dan's psychological state of mind." Dr. Chaucer wave her hand, dismissing the poor specter's well being. "What I _**am**_ concerned about is if this so-called 'Project: Banshee' is worth the time and resources of Veneficus Scienceat all. What exactly do you intend to do with Mr. Dan once the banshee gene is isolate from his genome?"

I stepped back slightly "Well, I.. Um..."

"Dr. Goddards." A colleague moaned in irritation "They're waiting for you... in the _test chamber_." He spoke through his teeth. Clearly, they weren't willing to dely today's test for my 'side-project'.

"I-I'm afraid I must excuse myself to my post, Dr. Chaucer." I backed into the open door towards the test chamber air-lock. "I'd hate to retard the scientific process any further."

"Fine," She turned her back to me "I'll allow you to weasel your way out of this conversation this time, Goddards, but we shall converse on a later date." She glared over her shoulder, straight into my eyes "This I swear." I shrunk my head into my suit as Porter bravely stepped in between us before Dr. Chaucer left.

I sighed with a smile at my dear friend for defending me from further questioning at the hands of my superior. I put my hands on his shoulder and we turned into the airlock "She simply evokes trouser-dampening fear in me every time."

"Mi koni, Percy," Porter said, patting me gently on the back "Mi koni."

* * *

Author's Note: Next Chapter dedicated to whoever correctly guesses what language Porter speaks and what he said in chapter seven.


	10. Showtime

**Dan**

**

* * *

**"Ugh, let's see, I take right at the administration offices then a left at the portal testing chamber... or was it a _right_ at portal testing and_ left_ at administration?" I groaned and tossed the pencil onto the shelf of my transparent room. Mapping was trickier then I remember... hmm, actually, on second thought I never really had a knack for it...

I had re-discovered the enclosed glass balcony with the art supplies about a half hour or so ago and decided to busy myself until my handler would come running to me about my sob-story and beg to help me settle my affaires with young Danny Fenton. So I decided to sketch a map from a nearby door to the cafeteria to ingrain the memory in my mind.

After a few minutes frustration, I forced myself to walk away from the easel before I decided to burn it. I hated being so inactive. It used to be that whenever I ran out of things to break in one dimension, I'd just go to the other, just in time to destroy new buildings or floating islands. Now, I was stuck curled up in my transparent tunnel system, waiting for that damn wizard to show up.

I was beginning to doze off (I would've slept til about 10am, as usual, if it hadn't been for the damn werewolf) when a sound, kind of like an electronic 'poof', zapped from across the main tram hall. I lazily opened my eyes to see a small group of scientists backing away from a dark dull-green cloud swirling itself into an oval shape across the opposite side of the hall. An orange figure shot down from behind a corner, firing some kind of cannon-gun before disappearing in the man-sized cloud.

The orange-armored man popped out from a dull-yellow cloud he somehow created with the cannon-gun over 50 feet from the green cloud he landed in. Now, I was interested. It was a teleport gun and only further proved just how advanced this race was and how hard I would probably have to fight to escape.

The orange-suited man was hurled through the air in an arch, missing the ceiling by only ten feet before plummeting towards the ground. He fired the gun yet again, creating another dark dull-green cloud beneath him and hurled through the lighter cloud yet again. "Tally-ho!"

Oh, crap. Him. I let myself fade to invisibility, not that it would do me any good really...

Almost on cue, the wolfman slide sideways on the freshly wax floor, dressed in an identical orange metal suit, following his master's physics-defying acrobatics urgently. My handler bounded through the portal clouds, much to the mild delight of his coworkers before firing the darker-colored portal just above the tunnel system not 20 feet from me.

As he shot straight up in the air, he shot a light-colored portal directly underneath him, where he would land. He fell through it and slid across the smooth glass of the hamster trail to a stop next to me. "Greetings and salutations, Mr. Phantom." he stated in an sickeningly polite tone with a small bow in my direction. "Yes, I see you. Right there." He pointed directly at me.

I pouted but turned visible nonetheless. Not reacting would only encourage him to continue talking. "What do you want?" I muttered, looking away. "And what are you wearing?"

"Why, this is my armored hazardous environment suit." He cheerfully stated, holding out his chest to show the Veneficus Science logo in-between the breast plates. "Science is a dangerous work, even more so when you are responsible for testing the new inventions." He started, holding onto a steel support beam for balance "I just popped by to warn you that the Administrator wants to bring in some analysts to ensure you are... well, _worth_ having here."

I straightened as much as I could in the tunnel "And if I'm _not_ worth being kept here?" Perhaps an escape plan wasn't necessary after all...

He cleared his throat, glancing away nervously. "I supposed you would be... um...Ah, Porter! There you are!" The wolfman scowled at me before glaring at his master. "What is it, my friend?"

"Vi foriri mi al trovi li!" The wolfman growled

"Ooh, I did _not_ ditch you!" the wizard defended himself "I was continuing our experiment with the Intra-Dimensional Portal Projector. Or the I.D.P.P." He added looking back at me.

"I can't _tell _you how much that interests me..." I said in a sarcastically deadpan tone. Clearly, he hadn't heard my sob-story, so I looked away and said "Can you just leave? I'm not in the mood right now..."

The wolfman jumped the 15 feet onto the top of the tunnel, as the wizard looked down at me with concern. He knelt down on the transparent tube and gently asked "Why? Whatever is the matter, Daniel?"

Showtime.

* * *

Dedicated to deadlydaisy8o8 although it would be better if I dedicated the _next_ chapter to her for answering a Porter question.

Also, Merry Christmas y'all!


	11. Demonic Lies

**Kota Piedego a.k.a Porter**

[(_As translated, edited and corrected for grammar by __Dr. Percival Godda__rds Ph.D a.k.a. Percy_)]

* * *

I knelt next to Percy as the fire-headed demon from hell sighed and spewed a river of lies from his mouth. He said that he had a partial brethren named 'Danny Phantom', but I knew demons have no parents; they are spawned only from the depths of hell who's fire blazes on his head. It is the proof of his foul origin! The demon wished to amend his ways with the young Phantom and his ususal vile temper was the end result of his knowing he could not.

I growled, shaking my head to show that I would not believe him. But Percy, my only pack-mate... his face showed mercy towards the beast. I had always let Percy be Alpha in our pack of two, he knew the ways of the wizards better then I could ever understand, however, I would have to assert dominance, if only to protect him and our way of life. Our pack may be small, but there is no room for monsters.

"He lies." I stated to Percy. "He deserves no kindness."

"Oh, poppycock." Percy stated in his own language. "No one becomes evil overnight. People are a reflection of their environment, Porter, and Lord knows what horrible situation Daniel came from." I glanced at the demon. A wicked smile cracked across his face that I answered with a warning growl. "He, in fact, deserves the _most_ kindness so he may adapt to a kinder, gentler way of living. Isn't that right, Daniel?"

The demon reeked of anger and hatred but his words spoke only of empty promises and false agreement. He pleaded with Percy to help him by returning his sibling to him so he may right what he had wronged. He wished for Percy and I to travel to the forbidden Human World. Luckily, even Percy knew that only death could be found on the Other Side.

"I'm... not so sure, Daniel." Percy stated hesitantly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Danny Phantom may be renowned as a kind and heroic being but the humans he lives among... ugh, they are... they're simply too dangerous for any non-human being to attempt to approach..."

The demon froze in shock and anger. He asked us if we were lying about the evil humans' hatred of all non-humans. He asked if we were 'kidding'. He then laughed at our fear, saying he knew only of humans as weak, spineless cowards he enjoyed tormenting.

"But you must understand, Daniel," Percy pleaded with the evil being "Humans have proved time and time again that non-humans are simply not welcomed into their society. Why, they slaughtered dozens of their own kind in hopes of hanging just one wizard during the Salem Massacre. Not to mention the vampire head-hunts during the Dark Ages or the slaying of werewolves for their fur in that same era."

Many a strong Alpha have been lost to the Humans' bloodlust. But I would not lose mine. I allowed a toothed smile upon my face as I chortled. As least, I chortled until the demon's false frown of pathetic sadness which was the cause of my peach-skinned friend to speak once again "Oh, I suppose I _could_ ask the Portal Testing Team if I could make just a quick stop in Amity Park to pick up Danny Phantom for but an hour or so." Percy sighed.

"NO!" I yelled. Percy flinched from me. "We will not set paw on the human territory! Death and torment are absolute there!"

"You won't come with me?" He asked, gazing at myself. I shook my head to signal that I would not. "Well, surely I can't go alone to such a dangerous place..."

The demon interrupted Percy, stating that he himself could easily survive Human World if we opened a vortex to the Other Side for him. He would make peace with the young Phantom and then return to his dungeon of glass and metal, a palace compared to the hellhole he deserved to inhabit.

Percy scolded the evil specter for his "transparent escape attempt", but turned his attention back to me. "Porter, are you certain that you wouldn't be coming with me to the human world? I would rather not go it alone."

"You would travel to Human World if I go or not?" I asked

Percy looked at the demon for a single moment before looking towards me. "Please understand," He stated in my home language. "I just want Daniel to be comfortable and happy. If he can finally make his peace with young Danny Phantom, maybe he wouldn't be such a threat. I would finally be able to step away from the project and we could go back to the way things were." He put his hand on my shoulder, scooting closer to where I sat "Wouldn't that be nice? Just the two of us being the best of companions?"

"It would be nice." I agreed. I wished for things to go to the before-Daniel times. I now worried so much for Percy's life, while trying to remember that my place was at his side, not in his front, at the head of our pack. I could not allow Percy to travel to Human World alone. I had to protect him. "I will travel to Human World with you." I told him.

* * *

Stay strong, everyone. I know it's getting a bit boring, but next chapter features a special guest narrator and the beginning of the end. (Dun-dun-_duuuunnn_!)

**Edit**: I've been thinking of changing the summery to something more straight forward. Let me know if the unusual summery if what enticed you into reading it or if you think a new summery would bring more readers in. Feel free to think of one if you can but please, let me know if you think I should have a new summery.


	12. First Impressions

**Danny Fenton**

**

* * *

**Ok, so what're we doin'? Oh, yeah, a story... narration kinda thing. But I gotta warn ya, you're talking to a guy that's getting a C in English. Ok, C-, so I probably won't be using big fancy words like—. Heck, I don't even know any fancy word to use as an example.

No, no, you're right, we don't have the room all day so I should just stop talking and get down to business. Nitty-gritty! _That's_ a fancy word I could've used as an example for words I don't know! Except I know what it means... Uh, random question: Am I getting paid for this? I just wanna... _Seriously_? _That _much for my side of the story? Holy shi– Wait, you said keep it PG-13, right? Sorry.

Ok, first time I saw Percival was down at the Nasty Burger. It was after school and me, Sam and Tuck were just hanging out, getting some of the smaller homework assignments done, when all of a sudden I just got kinda stiff and alert for a few seconds. Not like 'ghost-sense' alert where I get a little cold and I know something's here to try to kill me; more like 'someone of interest just walked in, so just be aware of their presence'.

I look up to see some Steve Irwin lookalike standing in the door with some kind of high-tech looking PDA and a monocle. I didn't even know people still _wore_ monocles! Well, after he walked in, some beefed-up shirtless Indian guy barged in, got on all fours and started sniffing the ground like a blood hound.

So I said to my friends "Hey, guys, check them out." and pointed to the definitely odd couple. "Whadda ya think?"

"Maybe science has finally set out to figure out what kind of meat 'mystery meat' is exactly." Sam joked from across the table, before taking a sip of her soda. "As if I needed any more reason to avoid meat."

"Aw, but the mystery's part of the fun!" Tucker whined. Yeah, he actually said that...

"Is that guy sniffing the floor?" Sam asked. "I wouldn't even walk on this floor barefoot, much less snort up all the dirt on it."

Next thing I know, I'm being yanked outta my seat by my shirt and shoved into the Steve Irwin lookalike's face "Tie! Nu, ni iri hejmo, jes?" The shirtless muscle man said in a angry tone.

"Hey, put me down!" I told him. "Guys? A little help?"

"Hey, vi paroli Esperanto?" Tucker asked in his 'secret geek language'.

"Jes," The man answered "Nu, menso al via mangxajxo, juna homo!"

"Now that was uncalled for!"

"Porter!" The lookalike said quietly through his teeth "We are attracting too much human attention!" He was glancing around really nervously."Put Daniel down, now!"

The man turned me around and growled at me with a nasty look on his face before dropping me on my butt and walking out. The Steve Irwin lookalike helped me up. "Thanks." I said "What's _his _problem?"

The man glanced back at his shirtless friend and whispered in my ear. "Werewolves aren't very patient, Mr. Phantom."

My eyes narrowed. Great, some guy I never even met before already know who I was? I tried to look calm on the outside but I was freaking out in my head. The guy glanced around the room quickly before handing me a business card and rushing to catch up with his buddy. I know, worst first impression ever, right?

I went back to our table and looked at the card. It looked like some kind of transparent screen with a map that pointed to the wooded area of the park. "Danny?" I looked up at Sam's voice. "What's up? You look upset,"

"He knows." I muttered, looking back at the card.

"Knows what?" She asked. I looked straight at her in a silent answer. "Oh."

"Who know what?" Tuck asked

"That guy in the safari getup. He _knows_." I told him.

"Geez..."

"It looks like he wants to meet with me." I told them.

"Alone?" Sam asked

"Didn't say. Guess he doesn't mind."

I'll admit, at first I thought it was some kind of Plasmius plot. After all, no one else knew me dual-identity and Sam and Tucker would_ never_ tell anyone. Even after we all went home for the night, I couldn't stop wondering if I should just go to meet the guy. He **did** tell the 'werewolf' to let me go so he wasn't out to get me... at least in public.

I couldn't even concentrate on homework, I was so obsessed with figuring out the guy's agenda. I turned from my computer, pulled out the business card and looked over it again. "You're being stupid about this, Fenton..." I told myself. I went ghost and phased through the roof.

I had decided I would go.


	13. Second Impression

**Dr. Percival Goddards Ph.D**

**

* * *

**I had _never _felt such embarrassment. Porter glanced up at me when I sighed. He was laying on his stomach on the ground in his usual sleeping position and I was siting indian-style across from him the tent.

We had set up camp in what we believed to be a secluded forested area of the human's park. Our teepee had enough space for us and all our equipment, which was good, but no amount of technology could undo the travesty of a first meeting that took place between me and Danny Phantom. Well, we _had_ invented a Temporale-Displacement Device but that only served to transport its passengers into the Time Master's tower.

"Vi palpi sana?" Porter asked in a soft tone. He didn't wish to upset me any further, as I had given him a rather stern scolding for his behavior upon arriving at base camp. I lowered the shield readout device and looked at him, but said nothing. He may have blown our one chance at convincing young Daniel to return with us to my home country of Atheneum.

"I'm fine, Kota." I intentionally used his name in lieu of his given nickname to show I was still unhappy with his past actions. Porter moaned to himself before slinking out of the tent, crawling on all fours close to the ground to keep from being too noticed.

I watched the poor man on his way out and couldn't help feeling sympathetic towards him. Well, he _had_ been raised by a race that, quite literally, did not understand the meaning of the word 'subtlety', so I had little right to discipline him for being so brash.

Before I could get up to follow and apologize, the proximity alert buzzed, showing an ectoplasmic entity heading towards our camp. I was simply elated. He was coming. I stood up and checked myself in the mirror to ensure I was somewhat presentable and suddenly I heard a hollow thud against the tent's transparent shield. "Ow!"

I poked my head out of the entrance to see the black suited young specter clutching his head as he floated back from the shield. Well, if these two Daniels were related, they certainly showed innate tendency to find hard ghost-resistant items with their face... "Sorry about the shield, Mr. Phantom." I told the child. "We had to make the shield transparent to avoid suspicion."

"Ye-a-ah." He sounded sarcastic. "You kinda blew that when your little indian guide there started sniffing the ground like a bloodhound." He pointed at Porter. Porter hunched and started shifted his weight on his shoulders, a typical sign of imminent attack.

"Porter." I warned.

"Um, he's not really a werewolf, right?" Danny asked, flying up a bit higher. "'Cause I don't need to be _more_ different."

I sighed. I had forgotten that he had been raised by humans and thus instructed in the ludicrous ideals held by the ignorant species about us non-humans. "Mr. Phantom, you cannot be turned into a werewolf by been bitten." I droned. I saw the boy open his mouth to continue but I interrupted to answer his obvious question "No, he is not limited to changing into a wolf only during a full moon." Again, Danny tried to ask a question. "And he is not driven by some insatiable urge to kill."

"Jeez, all I wanted to know was if he's actually a werewolf or not." the adolescent muttered.

"He is indeed." I answered. I pulled out my camp remote and turned the shield off. I stepped aside and waved Danny into my tent. "If you'd be so kind, Mr. Phantom." Danny touched down on the ground a few feet away and walked into the tent, obviously not letting either Porter nor myself out of his sight.

"Wow." As I closed the flap of the tent and reactivated the shield, I noticed young Danny was in awe and my equipment. "Tuck would flip if he saw this." I could understand his amazement. We have estimated our technology is over one hundred years beyond the human's. He would probably never live to see these devices invented by his race. "What is all this?" He asked.

I might as well make him aware of my non-human nature and get it over with, I thought as I took a deep breath. "It's Wizard technology, Mr. Phantom."

He instantly spun around, clearly excited. "Whoa, you got magic powers?"

"No," Danny slumped at my answer "But we wizards never had any powers beyond you humans, excepting our enlarged frontal lobes, sophisticated linguistic tendencies and generally advanced constructs eons beyond that of _Homo Sapiens Sapiens_."

Danny glanced away for a split second before looking back at me, blurting "Huh?"

"We talk, think and are generally more capable of more advancements then humans in all subject of science, mathematics and ideals." I stated as clearly as I could imagine necessary "I hail from the Veneficus Science research complex located the wizard country of Atheneum and I am here to ask for your compliance in helping a specimen in our possession overcome a personal dilemma involving a confrontation in your pasts. Mr. Phantom, may I have your please permission to take you to the other Realm for three days, so I may should you what wonders your brethren species has to offer?" Danny stood frozen, mouth agape to accompany his wide-eyed stare, "Mr. Phantom, are you, um...oh, dear... uh, Mr. Phantom? _Mr. Phantom_?"

* * *

Percival broke Danny's brain... :(


	14. Bad Reunion

**Dan

* * *

**

I hate down time, especially when there's little I can do to change the boring, monotonous days that came standard as a nameless specimen. In fact, the only change that came to break up uneventful day after uneventful day was when I was extracted from my cell and used for some other wizard's experiment, which often resulted in either humiliation or excruciating pain. The last one had been particularly painful; the Magno-Pulse Cannon.

Apparently, ghosts are highly susceptible to electromagnetism (something about it messing with our 'auras' or some other crap) and to test the anti-ghost qualities of magnetism, I was placed in a barely-big-enough cylinder and subjected to various pulses of magnetic energy generated directly above me.

Oh, how can I explain the pain to a human? The pain rips through your brain like someone's cutting your skull in half with a chainsaw before the splitting agony tears through the rest of your body while your muscles feel like they are trying to rip apart from your bone. Just seconds of the device knocked me to the ground, writhing in pain. My handler forced them to shut it off after only a fraction of the time they wanted to run the test.

And, of course, they gave me absolutely no chance of paying those bastards back for the pain they caused me.

I was laying on one of the lower floating islands, idly pulling grass out as I waited for the light tapping from one of the windows that would signal that the wizard had returned with my weaker self. It had been two days since I recited my sob story to the wizard and I hadn't seen him since. Ordinarily, that would be a blessing but he was crucial to my escape. With my regularly-scheduled draining looming ever closer on some unknown date, I could only hope it was not the day he returned with my former self.

After I made a fist sized bare patch in the grass, I figured I was better off watching the scientists fiddling around in their dimmed observation area. He would probably hurry to my dome with good news as soon as he possibly could, and I would never stoop so low as to actually ask one of the wizards when he would arrive.

As I drifted upwards towards one of the windows, I frowned. Their reaction was little more then backing away and avoiding eye contact. Even without their little 'monster-tamer' to protect them, they were still starting to hold their ground more. Unless... he had already returned.

Out of the corner of my eye, a brighter light came into the darkened observation area from an elevator and my handler and his beefed up bodyguard came out. The wolfman growled and rushed at me, extending his claw and swiping them across the glass. I smirked at his fruitless effort until two shorter obscured figures rushed deeper into the darkness of the observation desk as they followed my handler.

I glanced at the angry werewolf before scoffing and flying over to the next window where he had ushered the smaller figures. "So, is she here? This is where Danielle is?" I stopped and chuckled. That voice was very familiar and it should be, considering it was mine as a child.

"There's no Danielle here." An unknown woman answered.

"Oh, it's quiet alright, Agatha." My handler cheerfully replied "Humans seem to have a different inflection when it come to the word 'Daniel'." He noticed my figure next to the closest window and smiled at me. "Why, there he is now. Mr. Phantom? Ms. Fenton?" He waved the figures behind him closer. I obliged and moved in front of the window.

I was greeted by my younger self, frozen in shock followed by the shrill scream of– I looked behind my human self to see who- my old sister Jazz as she ran and hid behind Danny's scrawny form.

"Didn't you miss me?" I asked, barely able to hide my amusement.

"You? But you-! I–!Clockwork–!" He stepped back, shaking his head, before turning to the wizard "You said _Danielle_ was here! I can't believe you lied to me!"

"I did not!" The wizard stated "I told you Daniel was here and that _is_ Daniel."

My younger self glanced back at me and I crossed my arms with a smile. This was one of the more pleasant happenings that have happened since I was enslaved by these wizards.

"No, _Danielle_ is a little girl! Not– him!" He motioned towards me. His eye caught mine. His expression only a pale shadow of the hatred compared to the seething fury I've seen on Valerie's face over the years. "I'm-!" He turned away from me and headed for the elevator. "Jazz, we're leaving!"

My sister looked at my human self with concern before looking back at me. "Yes?" I asked with a wide smile. "Care to lecture me yet again, just like old times?" Her expression slowly grew harder and she turned towards me in a unexpected fit of bravery. She wore the golden rimmed monocle that wizard always wore, which I found odd.

"You are **not** my brother!" She stated "And even if you _were_, I wouldn't _want_ you to be!" I raised an eyebrow in mild interest. Jazz was full of surprises. First, she had revealed that she had always known my secret, now, she was showing a surprising amount of bravery. "My brother is sweet and kind and... occasionally short-sighted, but he's definitely never going to be _anything _like you are! **Ever**!"

I frowned as she turned to leave, her words echoing in my mind. I scoffed at myself. Why should I care what my sister thought of me? I had every intention of killing her when she tried to stop me from cheating on the CATs. I had even dragged her unconscious body into the park so I could hide her soon-to-be-dead body but...

I looked behind me as I heard the familiar sound of a ghost shield turning on. The doors were now surrounded by a semi-transparent blue shield generated from small metallic prods protruding from the corners.

"Oh, _**crap**_." I muttered. "I waited too long..." A small tap from the window drew my attention away from the doors.

My handler put his hands behind his back with his usual kind smile. I noticed that his monocle was indeed missing and instead replaced by a pair of round 'Harry Potter'-esque glasses. I must have missed them in the dim light of the observatory. "The yellow door, if you'd be so kind, Daniel." He pointed behind me. I turned to find the neon yellow door was unshielded.

Half of me (Vlad's half probably) knew that it was unshielded for a reason, _their_ reason which was reason enough for me to avoid it. The other half (Danny's) knew that soft-hearted wizard practically_ lived_ for me. He regularly did whatever it took to prevent other wizards from excessively experimenting on me. I knew I shouldn't trust him; he brought me into my present imprisoned state, yet he had to have risked his own life to steal me from Clockwork's lair and he was far too goody-goody to ever lie, not to his precious Daniel. I floated over to the door and after seconds pause, opened it.

Red lasers connected from the opposite of the barren transparent room to my shackles, collar, and leg cuffs and started pulling me in. I braced myself on the floor with a wide stance, pulling my arms back against the energy beams with all my strength, but the sheer force to the beams still managed to drag me slowly across the ground. I saw that my handler had put on the same orange armor he wore a couple days ago and made his way into some kind of metal pod, helmet in hand.

"Send me in, Johan." He said calmly as he locked his helmet on.

I was halfway to the front of the room when I heard what sounded to be a section of the wall pull itself into the floor. I didn't see exactly what the opened area had, but a split second and a bight flash later, he was gone and footstep were coming from behind me. My handler put his hand on my shoulder and ducked under the lasers to get in front of me.

I growled under my breath as he bent down to go through a medical kit he had, but an idea struck me and I smirked. "Alright, Daniel, we need a few fresh samples and then we'll get to the discharging process, sound good?"

"_**What?**_" I snarled. My other self just arrive today! I needed my full strength to have a chance at plowing my way through this complex. He pulled a small vial out and clicked it into a metal casing with three needles on top. I waited.

"Now, Daniel, I know you're squeamish around medical supplies, after the...," He cleared his throat "prostate exam fiasco." No, I will not elaborate on said fiasco. He brought the needle to my neck just above the collar. "But this shouldn't hurt too mu-"

I balled up my hand and let the laser's pulling force slam it into the wizard's tinted viser, knocking him against the clear glass wall. "Dear God; It's angry!" One of the observers screamed. Seconds after the cry went out, my collar was activated, forcing my to grit my teeth as a large amount of voltage ran from the collar into my neck.

"No! Don't!" my handler called as he got to his feet. "It was my fault; He's stressed and in fight-or-flight mode. Deactive the collar immediately!"

They complied, but by then, I had been dragged directly in front of the thick glass panel. My handler slipped passed me and picked the needle-vial up. Familiar pneumatics sounded and a tile on the floor moved out of the way of a thick wire held by robotic arms. The cable rose up and clicked into the port on the converter.

I could literally feel my energy flowing from my hands and arms, down through my torso, and out the converter into the cable. Being immobilized kept me from jerking away, but I knew I had to think of something. Yes, I **did **need my weaker self to escape my cell, but being free of this pseudo-Ghost-Zone was nothing if I was captured in my weakened state and put right back. I only had one chance to use my human skin; it would never work against this self-proclaimed genius race twice.

The armored wizard's touch surprised me slightly when he nudged my collar downward to expose more of my neck. "Let's try this again, Daniel." He patted my shoulder in some attempt to calm me as he moved completely out of my view. I hung my head with a grimace. I _had_ to save my power from their draining technology. But more then anything at that time, I wanted to make the wizard that stood right behind me **pay**.

Internally, I fought against the flow of my powers, trying to build it up into something that would get that wizard off my back. I seethed through my teeth as I felt the trio of needles sink into my neck flesh and the mirco-mechanics start pumping my green ectoplasmic blood into the vial.

"Get. Away. Now." I growled, glancing back at the damn irritating man. I was building up a sizable charge of energy that started to take a physical form as energy circling around me. And that was only the extra. Inside my body, it felt as if the converter cable was hungrily sucking at some blockage I made to prevent it from stealing my reserves I was build.

"Daniel, don't!" He pulled the needles out and it sounded as if he was starting to back away from me, "You mustn't! You'll surely get Burnout if you create a pulse wave this close to the discharge completion."

Inside, the area where the converter was implanted in my organs felt a strange combination of intense cold with a ball of searing heat dancing underneath in a simultaneous-yet-polar-opposite forebodings pain. I had no choice but to ignore it. I clenched my body as much as the lasers allowed me ("Daniel, it's too dangerous!" I recall the wizard shout as I did that) and released my remaining energy reserve in a explosive shockwave of ectoplasmic power.

"Dan–!" His word was cut off as he was thrown back against the wall in a loud solid thud before dropping lifelessly on the ground. The cable painfully yanked the converter partially out of my body as it was ripped from the device by my explosive power. (The hardened steel belt that held the converter in me prevented the damn thing from falling out; which was probably a good thing when one has two inch-wide holes in his body) I heard the other wizards scream and their feet pounding the floor as they stampeded away from electric cackling that preceded a mild explosion of the some of their equipment.

I couldn't believe how much that attack took out of me. My arms hung limply above my hung head, the rest of my body felt ready to buckle out from under me, if the lasers weren't holding me upright. I couldn't ever catch my breath, each labored pant seemed harder and harder to accomplish. Something was definitely wrong.

As my vision grew blurry and the sound of nearby electric discharges faded into a muted echo in the growing blackness, the last thing I recall was how quickly the room was becoming unbearably cold.


	15. Bedridden

**Dan

* * *

**

_Valerie's jet-sled landed in an desolate, trash-ridden alley where it's red armored rider pushed a button, retracting her armor and transport before she turned the corner. Police tape blew gently in the ice cold wind, seemingly pointing at the young boy that stood in front of the statue of his family. '__Gone but not forgotten__'. _

_Valerie put her hand on the singed corner of the partially demolished Nasty Burger. The boy she was watching was completely silent, so silent she didn't want to reveal herself, even though he had ask her to met him here. She approached slowly "D.. Danny?" She asked softly. "I'm... sorry I'm late." She tried to put a dash cheerful innocence in her voice, hoping it might make him feel better. _

_When he didn't move, she quietly walked next to him and looked at his face, worried. Danny's was breath through clenched teeth as tears streamed from his eyes, crawling along his face before dropping lifelessly into a pothole._

_Valerie put her arm around Danny and pulled him close against her. "I know you've heard it before but I'm sorry that they..." Danny's sharp wince at her words told her to stop. "It's ok. I'm here now. I won't leave you." She gently took his chin and lifted his face up to look at her's. "Ever."_

_Danny smiled weakly, rubbing his eyes on his shoulder. "Val, there's something I gotta tell ya..." He muttered looking away "But ya gotta promise you won't freak. I mean, really, really, __**really**__ gotta not freak out about it. Like, at all."_

_Valerie stared gently in Danny's watering blue eyes. "I promise. What do you wanna tell me?"_

_Danny step back from Valerie and sighed "Back in August, there was an... accident in my parents' lab."_

"Don't..."

"_And I don't really know what happened that day..."_

"She'll hate us..."

"_...But I'm..."_

"She'll freak..."

"_... I'm kinda... Danny Phantom..."_

"_What."_

"Not again.."

"_You're what! You mean all this time it was __**you**__ that ruined my life!"_

"Better run..."

"_You bastard! You ruined my life! And then you just stood by and let your own family die?"_

"_Val, you promised you wouldn't freak! __**You **__**promised**__!__"_

"_And __**you're**__ a monster! A sadistic lying bastard monster!"_

"_Valerie, what are you doing!"_

"_Something I've wanted to do for a long time: __**Kill**__**Danny Phantom**__!"_

"_AAHH!"_

"_Yeah, keep flying, you son-of-a-bitch! I'm gonna tell the __whole world __what a monster you really are!_

_...really are... _

_really..._

_are..._

I had to somewhat forced myself to open my eyes, lord knows how long after the draining. I couldn't help but be satisfied with myself. I had fought against the draining process before but never had I been so successful, even if it cost me the strength I needed to so much as sit up. "Wait-a-minute..." I finally got wits enough to see where I was. I had been tucked into the bed they had provided me back in the dome with several extra blankets piled on top of me. Then why was I still freezing?

"Daniel?" I rolled my head towards his voice. He was casually wiping his hands as he stood by my desk that he had apparently cleared and covered with a white sheet. As I looked at the covering, I noticed it was covered in green blood; _my_ blood. In the center of the largest blotch of blood was the converter, its twin four-inch-long prongs pointing up towards the ceiling, pointed ends coated in green.

I felt along my left side, where the converter was usually secured to my side. All I felt was a metal plate in its place. "Daniel, please don't exert yourself." He sounded genuinely concerned. But, still, he had taken his helmet and armor off, and I knew I would probably never get an opportunity like this again.

It hurt but I managed to sit myself up and tried forming an simple ghost ray. Immediately, chills raced from my hand and sapped what little warmth I felt. "No, no, no." My handler rushed over and despite trying to push him away, he managed to gently force me to lay back down. "No ghost powers. You're in a very serious condition that you've put yourself in."

"You mean that _you've _put me in." I snapped at him before working to sit myself up again. "What the hell did you bastards do to me?"

"We did nothing. Burnout is purely a self-inflicted condition. You see, Daniel," He said as he wheeled the desk chair next to my bed. Great, another lecture."A ghosts power comes from a unique gland know to laymen as the 'ecpa' or Ectoplasmic-Pancras. The ecpa produces and stores all of a ghost's ectoplasmic energy. Your converter works by pacing your ecpa's production rate, so you stay at a certain power level but it cannot discharge freely because the amount of power you produce on a daily basis would be dangerous to have shooting out at random intervals. The Discharge Process drains the converter's battery, and your ecpa, of energy, but only to a safe survivable level. When you build up that pulse wave, you used use every single ounce of energy we left and Burned-out."

His little speech reminded me of my parents, somehow, only he didn't instantly make me think he was just guessing or overanalyzing some tiny bit of data. These wizards knew a lot about ghosts, so I suppose I could take solace in the fact I wasn't a slave to anything less then experts.

"It's–" He sighed and put his hand on my shoulder which irritated me. "It's nothing short of a miracle that you've woken up so soon after burning out. After all, it usually takes-"

"Skip the lecture and just turn up the heat. It's freezing in here." I said, if only to preempt his speech.

"I already have." He pulled out a PDA-like device and started moving his finger on the touch pad. "It is currently 85 degrees. Profound coldness is a side-effect of Burnout. Mainly because you've," he glanced away, mouthing words to himself, before turning back to me. "Oh, how shall I phrase this delicately?" he inhaled sharply and stated through his teeth. "You are currently... incapable of thermal homeostasis." He leaned away, expecting some kind of outburst.

I never finished my freshmen year in highschool but I knew thermal meant temperature and homeostasis was the way a body keeps itself the same, health-wise. When I connected these words together a split-second later, it's meaning was somewhat unnerving yet ironic. "You're telling me that I am now _literally_ cold-blooded?"

"Temporarily." He quickly added. "Your body has ceased producing heat to conserve energy needed to power your vital organs. If you were in the energy-rich Ghost Zone, this wouldn't be as serious, as you would simply absorb the surrounding energy, but because you are in a secluded area not in the Spectral Territory–"

"I'm _not_ in the Ghost Zone?" I blurted out.

"Daniel, it _is_ rather rude to always interu–"

"Then where the hell am I!" I snapped. I knew I couldn't be in the Real World, this place having a purple moon for god's sake. But if I wasn't in the Ghost Zone, then how would I navigate after my escape? Thankfully, the wizard promptly answered my question as I expected.

"The wizard country of Atheneum, of course. One of the finest technological centers in all of Wizardom, a mere 1500 miles from the outer Ghost Zone territory." He then glanced away and muttered under his breath "Which has always been a problem for us."

So, it **was **the Ghost Zone, or at least part of the same dimension. That single fact called into question exactly how much I knew of anything paranormal. With different territories, the 'Ghost Zone' couldn't possibly be as endless as I had always thought. And if this Atheneum wasn't as 'energy-rich' as the Zone, then there were also different environments, different climates... different races...

My handler cleared his throat and stood up. "Well, you need your rest, and even though you ate only five days ago, I'm going to fix you a dinner." Even since I came to my current full-ghost form, I've noticed that vast amounts of time pass between hunger pangs, nearly three weeks on average. An advantage when you're banished to the deserted ruins of Amity Park.

But I digress... Although the thought of eating _did _kick in some innate survival instinct that briefly gave me a twinge of pleasure, I knew I had to keep my long-term plans in mind at all times. But I would need some answers, and unfortunately, there was only one man I could ask without having to drag myself out of bed, pound on a window and beg for a moment's attention from the ever-watching observation team.

I managed to get my stiff half-frozen body to sit up as he was gathering his equipment to leave. "So-o-o," I tried to sound casual. "How long does 'Burnout' last," I paused briefly, as I resented having to say the following word "Doc."

The wizard paused and turned back to me. 'Doc' had been the most personal address I had ever given him. As you may have noticed, I have been taking great pain in avoiding so much as even saying his name, and yet I had to not only acknowledge him as an individual, but one of a higher education then myself. A dual defeat in a three-lettered package.

"Well, usually when a ghost Burns-out, he lays in a coma-like state for several weeks at least, while he absorbs surrounding energy." He apparently heard my hushed growl I had attempted to hide by looking away and continued "But seeing you awake after only a five hours..." He shrugged with a smile "You'll be up and about in merely days."

I sighed and let myself sink into the pillow. I still had my chance!

"Porter? Port– Porter!" I glanced at the wizard's yelling as a dark brown blur flew passed the open door. I groaned. How'd that literal son-of-a-bitch get in here? Am I the only one that cannot leave my cell? "Porter, please, that hover board is strictly for Daniel's use for the next few days. Please, return it to him at once. Porter? No! **Kota**!" The wizards leaped from the door as the werewolf bolted in on some kind of semi-transparent flying hover-board.

The wolfman jumped off, letting the board crash into the wall inches from my head. He quickly got to his feet and cracked his knuckles as he walked up to me. The same painful chills rocketed through my body when my instinctual desire to simply blast the damn wolfman cause me to attempt to form a ghost ray.

A sadistic sarcastic smirk crack on his face as he looked down at me in fake pity, shaking his head as he tsk-ed at my powerless condition. "Aww, Estas la iom feo en doloro?" He chuckled before flexing his hands, sprouting three-inch claws from his finger tips. In a swift motion, he grabbed under my chin and yanked my head up with surprising strength, intentionally digging the pointed tips of his nails in my skin. "Poto mi sxtopi via mizero?"

"Kota!" the wizards finally said. The wolfman looked back at his master, further drilling the claws in my face. "Put. Daniel. Down."

He shoved my face away, causing the back of my head to bang against the headboard, and held his hands up innocently "Mi estis peni al helpi." He turned back to me "Gxusta, mia maljuna amiko?" He pitched my cheek as he cooed his words. I managed to gather strength enough to bat his hand away. He snarled, showing surprisingly pronounced fangs on his bottom jaw, not unlike a bulldog's.

"Kota," The wizard's tone was very serious, somehow asserting dominance over his pet. "I'm beginning to believe your intentions towards Daniel are not pure-hearted, so I will be escorting you to the teleport-pod while I finish my work here."

"Sed–!"

"No 'but's."

The werewolf snarled quietly in my direction, growling as I smiled. His master was on _my_ side, not his. His frown faded into another smirk and he turned away, chortling quietly to himself. "Oni momento, bonvolu." He glanced back at me "Mi deziri al diri adiaux al la peko demono... Helpi li al songxi kun unu kanzono, jes?"

The wizard huffed but sighed "I suppose there's no harm."

I scooted to sit up against the wall as the man-servant cleared his throat, before he shoved me down once more, his grin widened to show his teeth. Surprisingly, next he bent over and bumped his head against mine, before he started signing with a fake smile on his face.

"_Dormi monstro da infero,_

_Via teruro devi al esti efektiva,_

_Via sango flui kiel unu rivero _

_Cxar kiam Percy foriri_"

He turned away, leaving me to wonder what the hell he had even said, certain only that it was probably bad news for me. The wizard quickly confirmed my suspicion "You and I shall have a conversation about that your 'helpful song' later, Kota." The wizard muttered under his breath. The werewolf merely scoffed, blowing a strand of brown hair out of his face as he did so.

The duo took off on another hover-board, finally leaving me alone. At least until I heard "Ms. Fenton.". From the transparent ceiling, one of the scientists, I recognized him as the Chronic-Fainter, stepped forward onto the clear barrier above me as a obscured shadow with long orange hair came closer. I could see she was staring at me, obviously thinking that the dimmed room she was in prevented me from seeing her. "I'm Dr. Johan Cornwallis, may I ask what brings you here into the Danger Zone?"

I chuckled to myself. Even when weakened to the brink of death, I was still a horrible savage beast in their eyes. Jazz glanced away "We're still trying to talk Danny into staying til Monday. But he just wants..." She paused "His apology so we can leave."

The Fainter sighed "I honestly can't see that happening. I've heard rumors that he wants to change but from what I've observed in his behavior is that he is just a desperate ghost, and like _any_ cornered ghost, he'll do or say anything if it means saving his own skin."

"You means ghosts are cowards?"

I huffed through my fangs. They base who I am and what I do from data on other weaker ghosts. I am no coward. I've had to fight to survive everyday of my life from the last ten years. Granted, my powers are so great that it's never a _fair_ fight but that not my problem. _They're_ the ones who gave me so much practice and made me the superior being that I am.

"What I mean is that ghosts often take great pain in avoiding unpleasantries. And those people down in the Defense Division have always being a little liberal when it comes to new weaponry and weapons testing." I groaned at the memory of the Pulse Cannon.

"You've being using him for weapons testing!" I looked up to see if it was still Jazz talking. She sound outraged. Considering that I'm 'not her brother' anymore, why should she care? If anything she should be joining the wizards in celebrating my agony. She looked back down at me, stepping on the glass where the light of my room cast strangely ominous shadows on her face.

"He Burned-out." Fainter explained. "He's completely tapped out of ectoplasmic energy. At least, for now."

"Will he be ok?" Jazz asked in quiet tone I almost didn't hear.

What I did hear all too clearly was Fainter answering "Unfortunately."

"Bastard." I muttered back to him.

"Well," Fainter sighed to break the increasingly awkward silence. "I've heard there's a big gala your brother's honor tonight."

"Hmm-mmm." Jazz nodded, still looking at me.

"All the bigwigs in attendance..."

"I guess." She shrugged

"... And I'm going to spend the evening monster-sitting..."

"Oh, uh, sorry... 'bout that."

I put my head back against the headboard of the bed, starring straight up at my sister. She looked at if she was torn between running away and rushing to somehow save me. Me: the man that attack her and nearly killed her twice in less then 24 hours. It only goes to show you being selfless is not without consequence.

Finally, she seemed to shake herself out of her delusions of my salvation "I'd better go get ready for the party." she excused herself before disappearing into the darkness.

Fainter slumped slightly and returned to his clipboard "O-kay; Was kinda hoping you'd invite..." He said to himself "but yeah, no, you've got better things to do then throw a hard-working man a bone... bitch..."

* * *

Author's Note: In case you were wondering, here the translation of Porter's 'helpful song'.

'_Sleep, you monster from Hell_

_Your terrors must be(come) real_

_Your blood shall flow as a river_

_when Percy goes away_'


	16. A Question Of

Jasmine Fenton

* * *

Ever since I joined my little brother Danny with his ghost fighting, I've seen some.., pretty strange things. Giant two-legged lizards, blob monsters, and don't even get me started on that sadistic evil alternated Danny. So, when Danny barged into my room talking about an advanced society of magicians in the Ghost Zone, I had to remember to remind myself that stranger things _have _happened to us.

After I left... well, I don't know how I'm going to differentiate my brother from the... Evil him... Can I just call him... 'Dan' or something? You'll know what I mean if I– He prefers that? Ok then. After I left Dan's dome, I had to follow the surprisingly helpful wizard's eyewitness accounts to find where Danny had stormed off to.

Now, beforehand, we had been shown to the residential dorms where we'd stay during the trip and the personnel all seemed to say that that's where Danny went. Just as I got to the door, a bearded scientist in his mid or early twenties stepped out with a slight smile and nodded at coworkers that were gathered just outside the room.

"He's staying?" A overweight man asked. "Oh, fantastic! You've done it again, Dr. Freeman."

A woman nearby chuckled and put a hand on her hip, "Awfully charismatic for a man who never says anything, aren't you, Gordon?" After I realized the woman was only gearing up to continue her subtle flirting with the man, I excused myself past them into the dorm.

My brother, in true childish fashion, was laying upside-down on the couch with his head hanging over the edge. Next to him was the golden-haired gentleman that brought us here; Dr. Percival Goddards.

Now, I try to never judge a book by its cover or let one bad first impression turn me away from someone, but still, the fact that Dad has had better entrances while chasing after some ghost should tell you that Dr. Goddards was not exactly Ex-lax smooth.

I think I _had _heard some light tapping on the front door while reading in the living room, Dad 'inventing' on the other side of the couch, but what I **am **sure of is the near heart-attack I suffered when Dr. Goddards' muscle bound friend kicked the door in. Percival then promptly fainted and crashed onto our concrete porch.

But after he recovered, I listened to him talking to Mom and Dad and noticed his wide vocabulary and polite, upper-class mannerisms that surprisingly didn't make me believe that he was some snobby rich-boy. He came across as an intelligent gentleman with a genuinely selfless nature, instead of an awkwardly nerdy guy cursed with bad luck .

He dedicated most of today to show us around the facility, and even though the fun and excitement that came with being introduced to a whole new world was ruined by seeing that evil jerky Dan, he sill gave an aura of kindness that evoked a certain level of trust with him.

"Mr. Phantom," Dr. Goddards sighed kindly to Danny, who huffed "I had no idea you felt so horrible towards your brother. Had I have known–"

Danny quickly stood up off the couch and state "He's not my brother! How'd you even _find_ him? He's supposed to be at Clockw-" He stopped himself. Now, Danny had told a little about some ghost named Clockwork who controlled and watched over time, but I guessed that he didn't intend to spread the idea of Clockwork's existence to Dr. Goddards. Strangely, Dr. Goddards seemed to guess this himself.

"I suppose you meant to say 'Clockwork'?" He lowered his head and smiled at Danny as he gazed over the rim of his glasses. He chuckled and lifted his head back up, pushing his glasses back. "I negotiated a fair agreement for Daniel's discharge to me. Rest assured, Mr. Phantom, Daniel will never harm another being even again." He paused and muttered "Hurting himself however..." he trailed off.

I gently closed the door as quietly as I could and flicked to doorknob's lock into place. Danny's evil adult self, from what I know, would never just lie in bed, starring at me. Danny certainly wouldn't do that if he was locking in so giant dome and, say, Vlad Master showed up for a visit. I knew something bad must've happened between when we first saw him and when I came back.

"Speaking of Danny's evil older self getting hurt," I started as I walked across the room.

"Older self?" Dr. Goddards muttered, eyes glancing away for just a second.

"What exactly what happened after we left?" I tried to keep my tone strictly serious. I didn't want Danny thinking I was concerned about _him_.

Dr. Goddards shrugged and twiddled his fingers "Just a standard Discharge sequence. He'll recover if that's the reason for your asking." I've learned a lot about how to read people while doing research in psychology, and he definitely didn't want me to push the matter any further. Which meant I had to try to get more information out of him.

"Well, what's 'just a standard Discharge sequence'?" I said making the air quotes.

Dr. Goddards sighed and shook his head "How should I phase this to a human?" He quickly looked back at me "Not to insult your intelligence, mind you; You must understand that we wizards have a median intelligence range of 140-150. It's fairly difficult to adjust to the standard vocabulary of a species that has a median IQ of 100 unless one has had experience."

Danny, who stood next to me by this time, scoffed "Wow. 150 IQ?"

"Indeed!" He shifted his position so he sat aimed at Danny, eager to move to a different topic. Of course, I wouldn't let him get off so easily. "You see, wizards and human are actually evolved from the same–"

"Ahem!" Dr. Goddards shrunk a little into his shirt as he slowly turned to see me with my arms crossed over my chest. "The discharge sequence?"

"Well..." He started hesitantly "Simply put, we attach a conductive cable to the surgically-inserted ectoplasmic conversion device we installed, drain the converter and Daniel's Ectoplasmic-Panaceas of a majority of his plasmic energy and refine that energy to help power this complex. The refinement process starts by-"

"_You're draining Danny like a battery just to power your– your–__**coffee makers**__!_?" I immediately clamped my mouth shut when Danny and Dr. Goddards' stares, plus the dead silence of the room, only emphasized how loud I had been. I don't even know_ why_ I was so outraged. That ghost wasn't Danny. He didn't deserve my concern, so why did I even care?

"Um," Dr. Goddards now became visibly uncomfortable "Well, my dear, first off, his power is used for many different utilities, not necessarily to brew coffee specifically. Secondly, this is no different then–" He froze "No, I couldn't possible tell them..." He muttered

"Tell us what?" Danny asked in a serious tone. Looking back I'm glad Danny knew to take the conversation seriously.

"No, no, no." he waved his hand to dismiss our question. "You are young, innocent. What I was thinking of is..." He glanced away "Merely a grim reminder of the shortcomings that come with society such as ours." He then added in a serious, somber low tone. "And how very close Daniel teeters on the edge of being Condemned."

I glanced at Danny, hoping maybe he knew what the doctor meant, but Danny just looked back at me and shrugged. "What do you mean 'Condemned'?" I asked

"You mean... like... kill 'em?" Danny added "You can't kill a ghost... Can you?"

"Not humanly, dear boy." Dr. Goddards looked over the rim of his glasses at us, only unlike before where he was playfully teasing Danny's inability to keep a secret, he glared at us with a warning seriousness. "Not humanly by any stretch of the imagination." After a uneasy silence, Dr. Goddards stood up and headed towards the door. "I do believe we have a gala to attend in a short while. I shall leave you to get ready." He stated flatly before unlocking the door and closing it behind him.

Me and Danny exchanged worried glances. It was finally setting in that we agreed to travel to a realm and a society we knew nothing about. While the advancements the wizards have made at absolutely fantastic, one can't help but notice how hard it is getting them to talk about anything beyond science and technology. Even an easygoing personality like Dr. Goddards became off-putting and defensive when asked about their rather unusual tactics dealing with the other Danny.

I'll admit I was worried, not only if we could really trust these people, but for the adult Danny. Evil or not, the line between punishment and cruelty still existed, and if a 'standard discharge sequence' regularly involved leaving him bedridden, then that line had definitely been crossed.

It's actually a bit depressing to think that someone as nice as Dr. Goddards could be caught up in such practices, especially since he advocated his hard fought enrichment devices he installed for the older Danny before we were brought before him.

But before I got too judgmental, I had to remind myself that cultural differences can be powerful influences for a person's perspective on ethics. If a culture says that a man is the absolute ruler of the household, he may not see that spousal abuse is horribly wrong. Maybe what humans think of as going overboard, they see as merely a necessary part of the scientific process.

Still, I swore to myself that my complaints would be heard at the gala. Even if they didn't like what I would have to say.

* * *

Author's Comment: Sorry for the delay people. Being socially awkward, it's a little difficult to make myself write socially awkward scenes. I know I promised a special someone that this would be the chapter I would dedicate in their name because they gave me a great idea, but after such a relatively long break between this and the last chapter, I felt I should put up this 'intro' chapter up to A) prove this story wasn't dead and B) I really didn't want to do the next chapter in Jazz's POV. Why? Well, I feel that when I write out of Dan's or Percival's POV, it feels like comes out hard, un-detailed and with Danny and Jazz, I just feel that I'm not getting their character at all. Substandard really. Hopefully, my muse will return next chapter.


	17. Ethics

**Dr. Percival Goddards Ph.D**

**

* * *

**"Blast that little...!" It happened every time. It's infallible, to be quite honest. "Where _did _he get to?" I sighed and returned to the main hall of the Portaltrip Memorial Museum that had been elegantly decorated in Mr. Phantom's honor. I suppose it was the standard for most celebrations; tables graced with a fine assortment of vittles, beverages, minstrels, etc. Wizards don't often celebrate in such a showoff-ish manner, so we could only hope it held up to the rambunctious human meaning of the word 'party'.

The more illustrious of people in Atheneum had arrived beforehand and had taken to polite chatter, occasionally pulling me away from the task at hand to introduce others or simply ask me why in the Realm would a Goddards have anything to be frantic about.

I suppose I qualify as nobility. The Goddards family has a surplus of money, a large property handed down from generation-to-generation for centuries and we are occasionally called upon by King Albus III, the benevolent ruler of Atheneum, for advice or, more frequently, companionship for him and his equally intelligent and charitable wife Queen Hermione.

But each generation of Goddards holds the principal that we have a role in society and that we must not let an out-dated system such as classes to prevent us from contributing, be it big or small. My mother, Emilia, is a very beloved teacher at the Academy I attended as a youth and my father, Alva, is a well-known humanitarian doctor who's reputation for generosity and kindness was almost overshadowed by the fact that he braved the dangers of the human world nearly twenty years ago to help a certain ailing human by name of Vlad Masters.

"Lose something, Goddards?"

I jumped back from the woman's voice with a start. "Ah, Dr. Chaucer! Administrator sir-uh-ma'am." The Administrator stood before me in her usual dark grey suit, matching knee-length skirt and her dark brown hair was in an inescapably tight bun. Beside her, however, stood a visibly tense, scraggily sort of man in an off-black suit he seemed to want to disappear into desperately.

Dr. Chaucer noticed my concerned gaze towards the man and glared him down. "You've been acquainted with my retarded brother in the past," I distinctly remember the hint of disgust as her growled the word 'retarded' as if the mere mention of the word would lower her social status in life "so I shall spare you knowing his company any longer."

She grabbed her brother's arm and started to yank him away before I spoke up. "No, no, no, it's quite alright!" I quickly spoke up. "I rather enjoy the company of the less fortunate." I managed a smile at the timid Mr. Chaucer, "I feel it helps me appreciate my current standing in life."

"So noble for a common Tester, aren't we?" She answered, not without sarcasm. "Such nobility should be rewarded with freedom from association with lesser people."

My shock at the Administrator's prejudice quickly subsided into pity after seeing the shamed saddened gaze on her brother's face as he was led away by his sister. This may have been a highly unusual revelation for the average wizard to announce but it was by no means unusual for his sister.

"Kio estas-?"I turned to the quieted voice behind me and the sight put a warm smile on my face. A darkened brown-grey skinned hand reaching out from under the buffet table covers, blindly feeling around the hor' derves.

"Now, there you are!" I sighed happily, causing the hand to retreat back under the table. "Now, I have had quite enough of this, Porter." I lifted up a corner of the cloth and bent down to look underneath. "Please, just come on out of there."

"**Ne!** Mi aspekti sxati unu knabino!"

"Oh, you do not look like a–"

"Dr. Goddards?" the sudden surprise made me jump, bumping my head on the table's edge. I rubbed my injured head before smoothing down my hair as I turned to the young humans.

Jasmine wore a simple-yet-elegant purple gown with a golden sash tied around her waist. Her smooth orange hair was held up in a bun that only added to her charming nature. Mr. Phantom, showing his father's very human simplicity, chose to do nothing more then morph into his spectral entity albeit with the addition of a light green tie that sported the FentonWork's ghost-esque logo planted squarely in the middle.

"Ms. Fenton. Mr. Phantom." I bowed to each in turn. Jasmine returned my gesture with a short curtsy before nudging her brother in the arm with her elbow.

"What?" Mr. Phantom rubbed his side where his sister harmed him.

"Bow back." Her whispered through her teeth. Mr. Phantom jumped slightly in realization before bow deeply.

"That's quite alright." I held up my hand to assure he had not already committed a faux pas. "I've got another matter to attend to." I glanced over my shoulder, back to Porter's hiding place.

"Hey, um," Mr. Phantom asked as he glanced around "where's that werewolf guy that hangs out with you? He's not coming or just not _here_ 'cause you two seemed like you were-"

"Danny..." His sister scolded gently "That's none of your business." She looked back to me "Sorry, my brother's not very subtle."

"Understandable." I replied "But there's no harm in asking. Porter's under the table right there," I motioned behind me "He's still mad at me for making him presentable against his will."

"How so?" Jasmine asked. Ah, she is so inquisitive for a human.

"Well," I started "Werewolves live very simple lives with little more than the basic necessities and, well, let's just say that it took a while for Porter to accept wearing a decent pair of pants on a regular basic."

"He's mad because you made him wear a different kind of pants?" Mr. Phantom asked

"Actually–," I was interrupted by Porter grumbling under his breath as he shuffled underneath the table before coming out. The article of clothing that incurred his wrath was a perfectly good light pink suit coat with a carnation pinned to his white lapel that clashed sharply with his dirt colored cargo pants that he wore everyday.

Porter quickly started growling under his breath when Mr. Phantom snickered at Porter's outfit. "Uh, nice suit." The halfa added with teasing sarcasm.

"Oh, heh-heh-heh." Porter mocked Mr. Phantom's laughter. "Vi esti en bona tio Percy estas proksima aux mi ungo vi gxis printempo."

"Now, there is no need for threats, Porter." I scolded him. My friend answered me by rolling his eyes with a sigh. It was quite concerning how Porter's behavior changed towards me in the two months since Daniel arrived. Fist of all, he knew better then to instigate senseless fights with passing threats. Secondly, he now treated my scolding as a punishment rather then a friendly reminder to mind his manners.

"Dr. Goddards?" Ms. Fenton brought my attention away from my friend. She had a stern look about her that instantly told me that I was more than likely not enjoy the conversation. "Can we talk in another room? Alone." Now, my discomfort was confirmed.

We silently moved to an adjacent room, a hall dedicated to the great vampire artist Samuel Dracula; brother of the arguably more famous General Vladimir Dracula who was banished to the human world for war crimes committed during the Great War centuries ago.

Ms. Fenton led me to a empty side of the exhibit, where I quickly found myself backed into a corner, a petite but still aggravated young woman passively blocking the exit. Her glare intensified before speaking. "Dr. Goddards, do you honestly believe what you're doing to the older Daniel is a good thing?"

I pushed back slightly into the corner, stuttering words for time. "I believe I'm operating for the _greater _good if that's what you meant to–"

"You know what I mean!" she quickly snapped

"–ask." I squeaked out timidly.

"You have him in a cage, barely able to stay awake, because of you and your '_Greater Good_'!" I shrunk into my suit at her harsh words, mostly because I rarely woke up to Daniel's situation without asking myself the same question. Ghosts instinctively crave their personal freedom to do as they pleased and required wide open spaces to truly be happy. They fight any authority imposed upon them to the bloody end if they feel they have the strength and skill to overcome it, no matter how benevolent the laws may be. "What exactly_ is_ your '_Greater Good_'?"

"Ms. Fenton," I sheepishly chuckled "I–You– That is to say that, uh... Daniel... is... not in the normal state of mind, correct?" Ms. Fenton glanced away for a split-second before returning her gaze back towards me, nodding slightly. "He will soon return to his normal power levels, have no fears of that. But imagine, if you will, what a ghost of his immense abilities would do should he be freed into the general society."

A older woman's laughter sounded from around a corner, followed by high heels clacking on in hard limoneum tiled floor. "What are to tell that to a human for?" Dr. Chaucer laughed "Humans don't care what happens to anyone but themselves. The only reason _this one _cares about the banshee is because he's her brother's relative. Nothing more, nothing less."

"I care because I don't think he deserves to be abused!" Ms. Fenton snapped at the woman more then twenty years her elder. "Besides, what would a wizard know about humans anyway! You've lived in the Ghost Zone your whole life!"

"I haven't been to the Ghost Zone in over eight years, and I know more about humans then the humans do about themselves!" Dr. Chaucer nearly yelled in the dead silent hall. "And I know humans hate everything but themselves!"

"How would you–?"

"The BP oil spill." Dr. Chaucer cut Ms. Fenton off. "Sure, you may have killed tens of thousands of animals... but that's not _nearly_ as bad as the rise in gas prices that you had to pay for. And what _really_ made the spill a tragedy? The shore-side families business owners that lost their tourists income because, for some reason, people don't care to have their ocean swim interrupted by bumping into the floating corpses of dead _baby dolphins_!"

Ms. Fenton's mouth hung agape in stunned silence as Dr. Chaucer continued her rant.

"We share a common ancestor: the Cro Magnons or 'Caveman' as you humans call it. We evolved side by side on Earth for centuries, you humans as our species' brawn and we wizards as the brains. We thrilled you with 'magic' and 'spell-casting' that was little more then fireworks and slight-of-hand. And how do you repay us? You grow paranoid of our 'Godlike power' and start hunting us down one-by-one during the Salem Massacre!"

"You mean the Salem Witch Trails?" Ms. Fenton. Dr. Chaucer put both hands behind her back and leaned forward, glaring directly into the young woman's eyes, scolding the ignorance in the child innocent misunderstanding. She didn't know the Massacre and the 'Witch Trails' were one and the same.

"Not to mention," Dr. Chaucer continued "the thousands of innocent Vampires you humans butchered during the 1300s. In 1364, there was an estimated 150,000 vampires on Earth, living peacefully among you, drinking only the blood they needed and letting you live after they finished. By 1369," her voice became low and foreboding, "your human head-hunts left less the 5,000 vampires alive before the best of the wizard science community build the Grand Portal Device, I believe you humans called it 'Stonehenge' or something, to safely migrate the vampire's remaining population into this Realm, protected from your hatred and bloodlust."

Dr. Chaucer put her hands in front of her and placed them flat against each other as if she was praying. "To summerize, you humans drove off every non-human Sapiens off the face of the Earth because you baselessly thought we were evil and out to kill you when we meant nothing of the sort... and _you_ are trying to tell _us_ that _we_ are unethical?" she chuckled to herself and turned to walk away "**Everyone** in the Realm knows that humans are anything _but_ humane."

"Oh, come now, madam," I smiled at the familiar and gentle male voice, one I could never mistake. Dr. Chaucer stepped back and bowed her head, hands placed behind her back again. "You act as if you speak for ever werewolf, wizard, vampire and ghost that is, ever was, and shall ever be." The tall brown-haired bearded gentleman in a royal-red robe, lined with white fur sauntered into the room with a heartwarming smile on his face and a golden, jewel-lined crown on his head. He caught a glimpse of me and his smile widened "Percival, my old friend." He bowed his head slightly and I returned it with a deeper bow towards him. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" He turned towards Ms. Fenton and gave a deeper bow. "Ms. Fenton," He scooped up Ms. Fenton's hand and gently kissed it. "Allow me to introduce myself. I and King Albus the Third. This may seem a bit tardy but... Welcome to Atheneum. We have been waiting for the Banshees to return for centuries to take their rightful place as the Ghost King. But, please, let us rejoin with your brother before I tell you of the rise and fall of Dynethus Banshee."

His majesty waved Ms. Fenton to follow and hiss parting wink at me suggested that I was welcomed to fallow. "Who's Dynethus Banshee?" Ms. Fenton asked, having been unable to get a word in edgewise for some time now.

"The world's very first Banshee, the Ghost Zone's very first King, some go as far as to say the greatest hero that ever existed ever!... And.." He chuckled and turned his benevolent gaze towards the human. "He is your brother's direct ancestor."

* * *

Author's Notes: I hit a bit of a inspiration block writing this, so that kinda halted to progress of this chapter for a good month. I wish I could say that the next chapter won't take so long, but I don't like lying to people.


	18. Banshee Begins

**Jasmine Fenton**

* * *

No. It couldn't be like that. As I followed the apparent ruler, I was plagued with questions. What if all this time humans had been the evil monster? What if _that_ was why ghosts took pleasure in scaring people? What if all the stories about blood-thirsty vampires, merciless werewolves, and tyrannical warlocks were just the result of hateful and biased racism?

And Danny... descended from a king! A _ghost_ king! I don't much believe in destiny but the fact that he got ghost powers in a freak accident and is actually descended from a ghost is just too much of a coincidence to ignore. Was _I_ part ghost too? Did my parent carry the genes of the very creature they've sworn an obsessive everlasting war against? How can a human even _**mate**_ with a ghost!

We returned to the main hall where the reception was where Danny was chatting with a young pregnant woman (I'd say about five months along) not much older then mid-twenties near the buffet table. Danny swished his plastic cup slightly with a chuckle about something I didn't hear before my brother noticed me. "Hey, Jazz!" He waved before pointing to the woman "Wanna show ya someone!"

The king got to the woman before me and instantly took her hand in his. She rested her head against his shoulder, obviously being his wife. She wore a simple purple gown with gold thread sewn into spirals that dripped down the length of the dress. Her dark red hair was smooth and shiny, a trait her husband seemed to admire, seeing as he spun a strand of it around his finger before brushing it behind her head that was topped with a crown similar to the king's.

"Jazz, this is Hermione." Danny nodded at the lady.

"Such a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Fenton." The woman nodded back with a smile.

I leaded closer to Danny "You _do_ know these guys are royalty, right?" I muttered quietly through my teeth as to not attract attention to Danny's ignorance.

"What!"

Obviously, Danny didn't care about hiding stupidity.

"Oh, don't fret about that, Ms. Fenton." the king smiled. "I can't rightfully expect you or your brother to perfectly understand the ins and outs of our society."

"You can't expect _anything_ from a human other then pain and _death_!" It was that grey suited woman again. What was her problem? Since she was clearly walking briskly pass us, I didn't say anything to her. Even if I did, I'd be passing up an opportunity to talk to the only wizard I've met so far that seemed very willing to talk in depth about why me and my brother were so highly praised to their kind.

"What's her problem?" Danny muttered to me.

The king sighed as shook his head "You have to forgive people like that..." He said, as if disappointed. "Some people choose to fear and hate rather then understand and move on beyond the past."

"I... guess... I dunno," Danny shrugged "I mean, what have humans ever done to wizards?"

"A lot." I answered back.

"But you undoubtably are different then most humans in that respect, Mr. Banshee." The king nodded at Danny, now with smile on his face.

"Um... It's 'Phantom'." My brother answered. "Danny Phantom."

"Forgive me." the king bowed slightly towards Danny. "I was using your ancestor's name," He chuckled "to whom you bare quite the resemblance to, I might add."

"Really?" Danny asked "I didn't see any 'Banshee' in the Fenton Family Album."

Again the king chuckled quietly and kindly at my brother. "That's because none of your ancestors _knew_ of their ghostly origins. Even we wizards were shocked when we discovered a Banshee trapped in what I recall to be similar to your parent's Fenton Thermos who stated you as a close relative. Even more were we shocked when you indeed possessed the power to the Banshee Scream and used it to demolish your nemesis's laboratory not three weeks ago. The reason he is not mentioned as part of your family tree is because neither you, your father, your grandfather, nor anyone that has bore the Fenton name knew of Dynethus Banshee as their relative."

"Who?"

"_You refused to pay our tribute!" The giant snorted hot air into the peasant's face as he raised the skinny villager up by his leg in the town square. The square was filled as usual of the starving ghosts, all that prayed to the powers-that-be to send a man of money to buy what little crops they could spare to sell in the market. The beaten down quiet that was the norm was now strung into fear silence. No one moved. Not an eye fluttered away from the armored wraith that stood more the twice the height of any common ghost._

"_Please! I beg of you, my Lord! I have nothing to give! Nothing to sell!" The man was shaking noticeably as he stuttered out his words._

_The giant growled and tightened his grip on the man."You know the penalty for __**scum**__ such as yourself that cannot pay tribute!" The monestrous man roared. In his free hand, a raging fireball of red energy cracked to life and swirled vigorously around its master. "__**Death**__! To you and your __**worthless**__ peasant family!"_

"_And what becomes of scum like you, pray tell?" _

_The armored lord froze for a split second before turning to the voice with a snarl. "Who __**dares**__ intervene on the business of __**General Odysseys Dark**__!" Innocent bystanders quickly hurried to their shoddy housings until only one soul remained to hear the empty echo of the wraith._

_A young man, barely nineteen years of age, stood, looking only half as poor or unkempt as any other peasant. He bore a dark leather vest over a slightly dirty wool shirt. Dark green eyes met Odysseys' blood red eye. The lad was fairly strongly built but stood less then half as tall as warrior noble._

_Odysseys scowled and tossed the pennyless peasant away twenty feet over the street and straight into the roof of some commoner's house. He took two thunderous steps forward towards the lad and grinned "__**You**__? __**You**__ are the unworthy bastard who thinks himself __**worthy**__ of speaking unto a __**Dark Wraith**__!" Odysseys's laugh haunted the hollow desolate town. "Tell me, what is my victim's name?"_

_The young man expression changed from assertive to bored in an instant, after which he merely brushed his vest of any dirt and cracked his knuckles with a smirk often found on the face of any cocky delinquent._

_The General stepped forward again, both hands now swarming with red energy. "Answer your Lord! What are you __**named**__!"_

_The younger ghost had taken an idle interest in his fingernails when the giant's shadow cast over him. He looked up innocently and merely grunted "Hmm?"_

"_**SPEAK!**__"_

_Dynethus widened his stance in an instant as he inhaled. The Dark Wraith charged across the cobble street with a tremendous war cry. The village square flooded with wave after wave of green energy as the floating island was shaken to its very core by the sonic scream of young man. _

_The giant's bulky hands clutched at his ears in writhing pain as his feet slid across the stone walkway. The General quickly lost all footing and was thrown head first through several buildings before his body demolished the town's only church._

_The ectoplasmic cry soon died down with Lord Odysseys's life force. Dynethus inhaled deeply to reclaim his breath before slowly exhaling. He brushed off his hands with a pleased smile. "That should satisfy thy Lordship for much time to come." he spoke to himself._

_The peasants slowly recovered wits enough to creep from their homes and followed the path their tyrant's body had drilled through their town. After each citizen confirmed to themselves that Odysseys was defeated, they turned to the young man and cried out his name in hosanna._

* * *

**Kota Piedego a.k.a Porter**

[_(As translated, edited and corrected for grammar by Dr. Percival Goddards Ph.D a.k.a. Percy)_]

* * *

As soon as Percy's attention was distracted the Human female, I ripped off the hated feminine coat and shirt, replacing them with a cloak. Cloak's were not proper attire at a gathering like this but offered the freedom and lack-of-restraint that I enjoy. If Percy was unhappy, I will weather his disappointment. I followed behind my Alpha as he and his accompanying 'guests' left the large reception room and entered the small hall of things hanging on walls.

The king was talking to the Earth boy. To the Were-folk all is scent. We are hunters and we know our prey by their scent. The King was soft, like all these wizards, filled with good intentions and noble sentiments. Sentiments are for fools and people who don't have to fear that there are greater dangers left in the universe. We of the land know better.

His gravid wife was soft, too, but but not so soft as her mate. Impending motherhood fills her with fears and apprehensions. She desires to be nurturing but threaten her family and unsuspected claws will sprout. From what I remember of my own mother, the two females are similar and so I offer her the same respect her and keep my distance.

The Earth-she is interesting. Like the Wizards she is soft, but like Percy, her smell is sharp edged, quick, subtle. If she were not still a pup and tainted by the Earth people's fear and cruelty,she would be a worthy mate for Percy... or myself even...

The Earth-boy looked at a painting the king has been describing. It is large and surrounded by a large ornate frame that must have been two inches thick and eight wide. The frame was elaborately carved with serpentine dragons, three-headed monsters and a variety of oddly shaped people.

The painting shows a youngish, long haired man standing in a clearing, one foot pressing down a over-sized ghost, freshly killed. One hand was resting on his hip triumphantly, The other hand, fist clenched, pumps in the air. Light from an unseen source shines on his face. Three shaggy white-haired creatures, somewhat like a wolf with a turtle shell on their back were bowing before the hero, Dynethus Banshee. Danny studied the Banshee's face puzzled. The king had described him has the boy's distant ancestor. From his scent I can tell that the pup doesn't think it looks much like him, but it is obvious to any who looks upon him that the two are related, almost exact copies of the other.

"What are those?" Danny asks,, pointing to the recumbent beasts.

"Banthradons," the king explains. "They're the natural predators of ghosts; very vicious, very deadly. Their shell is proof to ecto-plasma blasts. Their appearance in the painting is symbolic of Dynethus Banshee's great power. Even the Banthradon's feared him and offered their obeisance."

Jazz was attacked by a signature on the paintings lower corner. "Da Vinci?" She read incredulously.

"He was one of us," King Albus replied. "His family declined the Great Exodus into the Other Realm, choosing to live in your world. They lived as observers, reporting to the Wizards what changes were going on in your world; the endless wars, the Inquisitions and Jihads. They were incredibly courageous people." The King sighed. "Without the sacrifice of people like them we would not know half of what we do about your species other then stories passed for generation to generation."

"Apparently they didn't do that good of a job if they think we're all hysterical, murderous, superstitious people," Jazz said unkindly.

"We stopped getting transitions from the Da Vinci family centuries ago." Queen Hermione answered. "Most assumed that humans found out about their Wizard technology and destroyed it _and_ the owners." She was following behind her husband, an arm slipped through his arm, guiding him along the Gallery. Danny glanced back to see of Percy's Alpha Female 'employer' Dr. Chaucer was following. He looked right through me, as I intended.

The boy disturbs me as does his splinter personality, that heartless demon. The demon is evil incarnate. When predators kill without mercy, they kill _only_ out of need. But the demon kills for pleasure. If ever let free it would destroy all that exists for the mere joy of the destruction. Thus it is that I want Percy to destroy this thing while he still can. That is if I do not get my own chance to slay that beast myself.

The earth-boy is different. His is not the scent of a hunter. His is not the fear of the prey. His scent is not the snake-like vileness of the higher female the Percy seems to fear. His scent disturbs me because it is a scent that, despite my and Percy's great travels in the past, I have not smelled anything similar to it before. The scent is of noble power; a dragon hatchling. He too, could destroy the world, but he wouldn't. One could only wonder what taxes one could force upon the weaker with such potential.

"Here's another painting of one of Dynethus Banshee's triumphs," the king was saying. "This one over the General Odysseus Dark, one of the first Dark Wraiths conquered by Dynethus." The painting showed an slightly older Dynethus leading a charge of thousands of rag-tag ghosts against the collapsed walls of a large castle. Armored ghosts were falling off the tops of the walls as the stone fall away from under them. On a distant tower was a large man, dark cape snapping in the breeze. He was waving a sword while around minions were trying to pull him away, down an escape path.

"Who are these 'Dark Wraiths' you keep mentioning?" Danny asked.

"Danny!" Jazz objected, "be polite. You're speaking to royalty!"

"Among the Wizards royalty is mostly a matter of courtesy. We may be responsible for making the final policy decisions among Wizard, we aren't really, otherwise, any better than any other wizard. Your brother's question is entirely reasonable."

"Just as Humans, Vampires and Wizards lived concurrently in ancient times, so were varieties of ghosts. The Dark Wraiths were a species that was larger and more aggressive than the average ghost and as a result they quickly rose to a dominant position in the Ghost Zone. But they were a cruel people. They sucked up much of the natural energy to be found in the air in the Ghost Zone and forced the lesser ghosts to farm for the remaining energy, which they collected as taxes. They ruled the lands now known as the Ghost Zone since before even we Wizards knew of this dimension. They were," the King paused, as if thinking of the right words to use, "incredibly hated. The Dark Wraiths would, from time to time, organize "Hunting Parties" - the source of your myth of 'The Wild Hunt' where they would tear through a community, burning, killing, terrorizing the ghosts there. The assaults were random and unpredicted, all to press on the people they ruled, that there was no resisting the Dark Wraiths."

_The clot of people ran across the narrow bridge that linked the small hamlet to the far side of the swiftly running river and turned toward the gates of the palisade surrounding the hamlet. The gates were closed and the fastest running reached the gate they pounded on the doors demanding entry._

_The party was half the size the size it had started out. The Wild Hunt had descended on a hill where three families has settled down and built houses. Twenty people ran screaming from the burning buildings. The huntsmen let them flee for a while as they pulled down the railings of the stockades and slaughtered the serfs livestock. They did this to emphasis how ruthless the Hunt was. Also it titillated their appetites to let the fleeing victims think they and a chance._

_Then taking their time they turned on the survivors. A grandfather with a lame leg went first, unable to keep up with the others. Then it was a toddler, too heavy ti be carried yet with legs too short to keep up. His squeals of terror were cut of abruptly._

_And so it went. One after another the weak and infirm were lost, overrun by the Wild Hunt._

_The survivors pounded on the closed gate, pleading, begging to be let in. But the villagers were too afraid to unbar the heavy barrier least the Hunt break through and slaughter them as well._

_A mother knelt, trying to shield her children from the massacre. Her husband stood before them armed with the only thing he could grab, a single hoe. Arrows thudded against the wooden palisade. The Huntsman were shooting around him, to draw out their terror._

_The father's arms trembled in fear but he was resigned to giving his live to protect his wife and children. A movement caught his eye an arrow, just a black dot in his eye was boring straight at him. He would remember for the rest of his life the sight of death._

_Then a arm did the impossible, snatched the arrow out of the air and flung it down crushed to the ground._

_"Stop!" a vastly loud voice boomed over the land before the hamlet. The Huntsman pulled back on their mounts._

_One man stood between them and the huddled remnants of their victims. He was strongly built with shaggy white hair and green, not red eyes. "You will leave these people's land," the ghost stated _

_"These lands belong to me! What regiment could thou __**possibly**__ command to demand the Royal Hunt into retreat?" Demanded the leader of the hunt._

_"I am that army!" he said and sucking his breath he released a tornado of destruction. The Huntsmen were swept off their mounts and tumbled across the open field._

"Within two years The Banshee had assembled a large army of followers and pressed on to the center of the Dark Wraith's stronghold," the king was telling the two Earth children. "The wraiths were soon abandoned by their soldiers and were forced to fight on their own. The slaughter was horrendous for both side. We mourn to this day the lives of innocent ghosts that were lost during this revolt."

I brought accidental attention to my presence with a short quiet laugh. I looked down to avoid seeing Percy's stern gaze.

"But where did he come from?" the earth boy asked.

The king looked confused for a moment, then admitted, "I don't know. Perhaps our esteemed colleague, Dr. Percival could give us the advantage of his greater knowledge in Spectral Studies." The king smiled at Percy, who didn't look that honored by the request.

"To be honest, sire, no one knows. Dynethus Banshee spoke little of his past. We know he came from the west, in the direction of the Vampire Lands borders, but of his family, his antecedents we have nothing. Parties of explorers have been sent to the regions and found no other banshees or ghosts possessing powers even remotely like his. We have to assume that just as the Wizards derived from a mutation among the human, so the Banshee was some kind of mutation among ghosts."

"Among our people,"' I spoke up "it is believed that great evil creates an imbalance in Nature and when the imbalance becomes too great; A rival is born."

"What'd he say?" The male human up asked. "I don't speak... whatever language he's speaking..."

"Well," Percy smiled and waved me over to join the grouping. "Not to infringe on your beliefs, Porter, but I don't think the planet has much power to decide when and where a hero is born. Evolution probably bred a powerful ghost that could defeat the Wraiths. Survival of the fittest and all."

"So you wish to befriend a demon because he can protect better then I?" I growled.

"What?" Percy glanced back to the grouping before walking over to me and lowering his voice. "Kota, please," he asked in my language "be reasonable. You mustn't come to such terrible conclusions." I looked away in a huff. Percy gave a shallow laugh and muttered "You'll start sounding like my father if you do," he smiled "And you _know_ I can't resist a challenge like 'don't do this' and 'that's too dangerous' when it comes from someone who always thinks the sky is falling..."

I kept my mouth closed to keep him from hearing my chuckle. Percy's father, Alva, is a tremendously generous and honorable soul, do not mistake that, but he always feared for his firstborn son, as any parent would. When I was accepted into their tribe, known to wizards as a 'family', Alva made me promise to protect his offspring, no matter what. I was but a cub myself at the time, but if being the beta in a pack of two is the price for belonging in my new tribe, I would happily pay that price a thousand times over.

Percy seemed to look behind me, causing me to look in the same direction. Nothing. "Just a second, Porter, I think there's something behind your ear." he smiled slyly

I knew exactly what he truly meant. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no." I ducked under Percy's hold. "Do not do that magic here."

"I'm serious," He grinned, reaching behind my head. "I really think I see something."

I put my hands on the back of my neck. "Not here! I do not want others to see!"

"Now, stop being such a baby and just let me get it." Percy reached behind me; I quickly ducked down... but not nearly fast enough.

In Percy's hand, having appeared out of thin air, was a faded purple doll of a Graffle, a hoofed grazing animal commonly preyed on by us Were-folk. "Give!" I shot to my feet and lunged for my cub-hood toy. Percy held it above his head.

"I thought you liked that trick!" Percy laughed "Why not show it to Mr. Phantom? He's right over there." He waved the worn trinket in the Human-cub's direction, showing my possession off to all those around us.

"No!" I tried to weave around Percy for a opportunity to grab it. I could have, without so much an ounce of effort, ripped my toy out of my Alpha's hand, however I would hurt him in doing so, an unforgivable offense. To prevent myself from losing control, I sat on the floor and turned my glare away, changing into my animal form as I did.

"What's wrong, Kota?" I looked out of the corner of my eye at Percy. His posture had returned to the refined, how whiter-skinned men say, 'gentleman' position with concern in his eye. "You used to love the behind-the-ear illusion."

"Forgive me for being in no spirits for childish shenanigans, Percy..." I spoke quietly. "Understanding that you only see a were-man in his madness against an angel you do not believe to be spawned from Satan's loins prevents enjoyments in your sorcery."

* * *

Author's Note: This Chapter is _Not Done_ and Probably never will be. There's just too little action for too little payoff. The next chapter is probably going to be my longest and hopefully worth the wait. I just wanted to update this chapter with the cute little moment between Percival and Porter.


	19. Unleashed

_Percival nervously straitened the tie of his suit before putting his hands behind his back. To lessen his increasing stress, the wizard watched Porter exploring the auditorium, a stadium sized theater where only the most important news called for a live gathering of scientists. The staff and researchers were already there, the reason they congregated was still unknown to them._

_A small humming from nearby in the center stage revealed a platform that lifted Dr. Chaucer next to Percival. "Goddards," She spoke under her breath "You best hope that this... thing you have found will be far more useful to us then the Temporale-Displacement Device. Are you certain that it is what you say it is?"_

"_Y-yes, Administrator. An-and I believe the subject in question is a Male."_

_Dr. Chaucer waved her hand in Percival's face and scoffed "Whatever, Nature-Boy." She walked to the middle of the platform and a spotlight was cued on her. "Researcher, benefactors, and retarded relatives my father forced me to hire just to get him out of the damn house, we Wizards remember the Ghost Zone's forgotten hero, Dynethus Banshee, as one whom's power was so great, others could not help but seek to destroy it and all who bore his relation. For centuries, the Banshee Gene has been declared to have died out. But today, because of Percival Goddards contributions to the now-indefinity-postponed Time Machine Project, we now hold what appears to be a being descended from that great hero's bloodline."_

_Percival swallowed drily before stepping back as another platform started rising. Porter circled around the opening before gently pushing Percival behind him._

"_Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting..." She purposely paused for tension as the large steel crate rose to the stage and televison monitors were lowered for the view on the audience. "The Banshee."_

_The screens flashed to life to show the contents of the cage, a single light-blue skinned male specter in a white-and-black jumpsuit, jagged cape whipping around him as he almost frantically started looking through the thick tightly-spaced bars of his container. Dr. Chaucer's formal pose slumped upon hearing the disgruntled mummers in the crowd. "Told you they wouldn't go for it." She growled at Percival._

"_You said no such thing!" The man quickly pointed out. "__**I**__ was the one who–" He stopped as his darker-skinned companion let out a growling hiss. He sunk down on all fours as his growl grew darker. "Porter, what are you—" _

"_Fari __**NE**__ proksimigxi gxi!" Porter yelled throwing an arm up to block his Alpha._

_Percival had pulled back from his friend's sudden movements but he soon relaxed. "Porter, look at him." Percival smiled gently at his friend. Porter growled but glanced up to the screen, seeing the stranger in the crate back into a corner with a scowl. "He's probably terrified. The Banshee can't possibly be a threat to any-" _

_The caged ghost inside rocketed into opposing wall of the crate, sending the cage teetering on edge. Dr. Chaucer touched the very edge of container and, with the slightest push, the crate fell back into place with a resounding thud. "–one." Percival finished, still frozen in place in alarm. He glanced into the unfazed expression of the administrator._

"_Really." She replied flatly. She smirked and tapped her knuckles on the crate "You'll have to do better then that, ghost." She said, laughing lightly "Because I'm... I just don't __believe__ you want out. Make me __believe__ you want out of there. Whadaya say?" A low grumbling came for the crate in response. Dr. Chaucer bent over slightly, smug smile on her face. "I can't he-e-e-ar yo-o-o-ou." _

_A low glow slowly built up in the crate, causing Percival to take a step back and Porter to instinctively standing in front of his Alpha. An ectoplasmic pulse shot through the small slits between bars, Porter instantly pushing his friend to the ground out of the way. "Oh, dear GOD!" Dr. Chaucer yelled. _

_The auditorium quickly emptied, the screams of fleeing onlookers giving way to slightly muffed thudding going on inside the ghost-proof cage. Porter jumped to his feet before offering a his hand to help Percival stand. "Dr. Chaucer! Are you ok? Are you hurt?" He asked joining her as the woman buried her head in her hands._

"_**OK?**__ Of course I'm not __**ok**__, Goddards!" she screamed, pushing Percival away._

"_Oh, my Lord..." Percival whimpered_

"_**My suit is ruined!**__"_

"_Um... Come again?"_

"_That– __**beast**__ ruined my suit! Look at it!" the woman groaned as Percival looked at her grey suit. Dr. Chaucer wiped her hand over her lapel, pulling off a nearly transparent slime. "Ectoplasmic residue! __Yuck__! Disgusting slimy monster..."_

_A set of glowing red eyes narrowed as they glared through the slits in the crate. Dan wrapped a hand around one of the bars, his finger were the only thing that fit through the tight spacing. The woman in the grey suit shook the minuscule amount of slime off her hand and turned to the blonde man. "That's it!" The lady yelled "I don't care __**who's**__ great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson he must be! I want __**you**__-" she shoved a finger into the blonde man's face "-to put a Specimen collar on him and thrown him in the smallest holding cell __legally allowable__!"_

"_Y-you mean an Observation Quarter?" The blonde man asked_

"_Whatever__! Ya know what? __You're__ his handler now! __You__ deal with it! He's __your __problem now!" _

_Dan growled to himself, fruitlessly punching the metal walls of the cage. Those people were deciding __his__ future; proclaiming some cowardly scientist as the master of __his__ fate! Whoever that man was would pay the price for attempting to 'handle' a ghost of his incredible power. No one controlled Dan Phantom._

_(Later)_

_Percival stood in somber silence, head lowered. He honestly didn't enjoy watching what he saw. Porter, however, laid on his stomach, paws crossed over each other, with a sharp toothy grin stretched over his face. The Banshee's shoulder thudded against the glass, the rest of the ghost skidding downward to the ground. Porter's ears lowered against his head at the painful screech of skin dragging on glass, but he perked them back up with a laugh. "Porter, please..." Percival muttered quietly to the wolf._

_Daniel, as the ghost seemed to be named, was thrashing on his back, clawing desperately on the brand-new silver metal collar around his neck. Percival sighed at the sight of the man's struggle. Most new specimen did disliked the electro-collars initially, scratching, biting and digging at their neck to get it off. Percival usually took mild enjoyment out of the event, especially with the more intelligent species and their rather clever tactics to try to get the bands off. This, on the other hand, was just sad and painful._

_Daniel sat up from the ground and took some deep breaths through his fangs, rubbing his now-sore neck with one hand and attempting to adjust the collar with the other. Percival could hear the ghost specimen muttering almost every foul word the wizard knew of under his breath as the Banshee looked around his unfortunately small habitat. It was only the size of a small apartment, the largest quarters the Administrator authorized, furnished with only grass, Ghost Zone wallpaper on the back walls, and a pile of hay covered with a blanket in the far corner._

_Dan turned to the wizard, growling. That blonde was responsible for this device on his neck! In a flash, he shot across his habitat and slammed shoulder-first into the glass wall. Percival winced at the charge but kept at least one eye on the ghost. One hand against the glass swirling with green energy and the other still griping the collar, the ghost could only growl through the wall "Get. This. Off me. __Now__." _

_Percival cleared his throat, avoiding eye-contract. "I... don't have the authority to do that, per se... Sorry..." The ghost stepped backwards enough to slam hard against the glass again. Porter snarled with a snap of his jaw and stood his wolf form in his back legs, towering over both his enemy and his Alpha. "There's no need to intimidate, Porter." Percival patted his friend on the back. "He cannot break the glass. We're perfectly safe here."_

"_Is that a fact..." Daniel smirked, leaning against the transparent barrier. He shook his head with a small chuckle, turning his collar on his neck. "We'll see about that."_

_Percival held the bridge of his nose with a sigh. Ghost were statistically the hardest-headed species of Saipan, and notoriously unreasonable. There was very little use trying to talk the Banshee, or any ghost really, about the ghost-proofing of his environment until he had exhausted all possible modes of escape and demanded an explanation... although he probably wouldn't care to listen to the wizard for more then a few seconds. "I think our work here is done for the day, Porter... Let us retired for the evening." Percival waved Porter down the hall of the facility as he turned to leave._

"_Let us retire..." Dan mocked in a falsetto "So proper, are we? Well," He changed to a dark tone"Manner aren't gonna save you, Lord Tight-Ass. So, enjoy __this__-" he tugged on his collar "–while it lasts! I'll be out of this stupid neckless __and__ this little playpen by the end of the week, count on it." Dan glanced back at the towering werewolf "Beat it, Toto, before you miss the next flying house to Kansas."_

_Porter gave a hissing growl, and pounded his paw on his chest before dropping to all four feet and trotting after Percival. "Li diri 'domo tio flugi'?" Porter muttered quietly to his friend_

"_I think he __did __say 'flying house'..." Percival answered back in a similar hushed tone "No idea what the poor man is referencing but I do believe the stress of today's exhibition is getting to him. It'd be for the best if we didn't bother him for a while."_

"_Jes, Oni tre sopiri dum... Por cxiam, mi esperi..."_

"_No, not 'for always', just a few days."_

_Porter groaned, ears twitching backwards at a faint thudding from the Banshee's habitat. The werewolf laughed quietly before asking "Kio estas 'Kansas'?"_

"_I personally have no clue, my friend, but whoever Mr. Daniel thinks Kansas is, they must be someone of important."_

* * *

**Dan**

* * *

"Big-endian."

"Little-endian."

"Now, see here, big-endian is the superior form of coding. It's forward scale makes it easier to decipher by one's self."

Oh, God, not that again.

"Do you even know which you are endian you're referring to? Little-endian is superior for precisely the same reason, only with a declining scale as opposed to the foolishly inclining big-endian method."

I shifted onto my stomach with a groan, scrunching the flame-retardant pillow tighter to my head. The damn scientists were at it again over some stupid computer coding and, frankly, I'm getting sick of always being the one to leave when annoyed.

"Big."

"Little."

"That's it!" I brushed the blankets off and charged at the clear-glass ceiling, startling the two with the solid thud. "Shut! Up!" I snapped, pounding my fist against the glass for emphases. "Can't a guy get five goddamn minutes of sleep around here!"

"**Jesus Christ! It's awake**!" One of the pair took off running out of sight while the other humorously tripped over himself and crawled away in the opposite direction.

I groaned and floated back a couple feet from the barrier. "Yeah, yeah, big scary ghost man's up. Everybody run..." I muttered more to myself then them. It's one thing to get a scare out of the nerds with a simple surprise rush at the glass but the fact that they run screaming at me just for waking up... well, kinda ruins it for me. Not that humans could ever understand the satisfaction a good scare can give me.

As quiet returned to the Observation Deck, I actually started noticing how stiff and sore I felt, almost identical to the feeling of the first time these pathetic wizard released me from the thermos. I let out a yawn as a slight rustling from above made me look up. I didn't see what made the noise, but I saw my reflection, more specifically, my face covered in a shaggy overgrown beard.

I casually willed a small hardened ectoplasmic blade into existence along with a reflective shield in front of me and started shaving, slightly amaze how unkempt I had gotten in just a few hours worth sleep. Halfway done, I pause. It _had _been only a few hours, right? It felt like I had just blinked once or twice before the wizard's constant yakking annoyed me out of my sleep. I quickly finished shaving, leaving the usual short white patch on my chin, before leaving for the brown floating door in my cell.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen, please!" I saw the wizards were gathering on the other side of the transparent wall of my barely-used kitchen. I idly opened the small fridge to see what I had food-wise while trying to inconspicuously overhear what the big commotion was. The man that had spoke to the accumulating crowd cleared his throat as the obviously uneasy group started quieting down. I quickly grabbed the first thing I could find, an apple, closed the door and casually leaned against the wall.

"Now," the man started, "I'm sure that Dr. Kleiner and Dr. Magnusson's screaming hysterics has alerted all of you that the Banshee was recovered from his Burn-out."

"We were not hysteric!" One of the doctor's interrupted. "We _were_ screaming, yes, but it was not, repeat _not_ hysterical."

"Ye-e-es... o-of course..." the first man said hesitantly. "But now we must discuss..." I saw from the corner of my eye that the man was glancing in my direction. I just closed my eyes and took an bite of my apple. The man's hushed talking soon became inaudible, so I effortlessly spawned an invisible duplicate that silently flew up against the glass. "-and that as per Mr. Phantom's request, we should not allow the specimen any further contact with him or his human sibling."

I sneered, further pressing myself closer to the barrier. My younger self actually thought the wizards were enough to keep me and my revenge locked away from him and my obnoxious sister. Pathetic...

"Now," the windbag of a wizard continued "Hopefully, the banshee, like most ghosts, will believe he had been asleep from a fraction of the time he actually was. Uh, what was the actually time again, Dr. Steinberg?"

"Um.." A woman flipped through her clipboard, mouthing words to herself before announcing "36 hours, 42 minutes."

I choked slightly on my apple, causing the man to look up from the crowd. I swallow what I had and calmly took a seat on a barstool near the counter, facing away from them. On the outside, I maintained a disinterested appearance, inside I was nearly dumbfounded. Thirty-six hours asleep! How is that even _possible_!

The man went on and on about other things, but I soon lost interest in eavesdropping on 'proper panic protocol' or something like that. What concerned me was I was out for a day and a half and it was either noon or evening when my inferior human self was brought to me. Which meant I only had a few hours left to escape!

I quickly finished the remaining bites of apple before casually leaving, trying to keep my speed under control. Had to look calm... I could not afford any holdups, not when my very freedom was at stake!

Through the purple door to the hamster trial, where I paused just briefly to take a deep breath as I closed the door behind me. As I exhaled, I couldn't help but crack a grin with a quiet laugh.

I was going to be free. **Free!**

My excitement came out in the form of a high-speed dash through the tunnel system, only glancing away for the split-second it took to see the scientist's gasps at my, for lack of a more appropriate word, triumphant return. Those ignorant fools were little more then blurs as I blazed passed them at full speed. In hindsight, I wasn't exactly being as subtle as I should have been, but I was feeling fantastic! No siphon making me feel in a drowsy haze, no converter slowly leeching off my energy, I was firing at 100 percent, baby!

My travel through the tunnel went by so quickly that I barely managed to catch a glimpse of a woman that literally fainted at my tremendous speed. As I glanced back to see my fly-by handiwork, I came to a sudden and painful stop head-first into a dead end. A couple minutes worth of swearing and glaring at anyone idiotic enough to laugh at my misfortune was followed by more frenzied flight until I came to a stop by the wall my tunnel cut through between a tram station and the cafeteria: my exit point.

The wall was just thick enough to provide a fair amount of cover to change without being seen while still being just a few feet away from the small room where I would make my pleas for help. I landed crouching and willed the old silver rings into existence. I exhaled as I felt my now slightly tattered jumpsuit being replaced by a baggy white shirt and jeans.

I looked down at my old body; the battle-built muscles I am rightfully proud of now resembled pale tubes rather than arms. I distinctly remember noticing that the shackles on my arms were gone, as were my collar and ankle bracelets, yet I still felt their tight grip on my flesh, the electrical prongs still digging into my skin. As I crawled my way out of the tunnel, I could only hope the bands wouldn't interfere with my escape.

"Everyone!" I yelled out in my comparatively shrill younger self's voice as I scooted to the edge of the tunnel. "My bro- WHOA!" The tunnel ended a bit earlier then I remembered, sending me falling into the glass box, my face slamming against the glass wall as the rest of me landed hard on the cold cement with a solid thud. "God-dammit, I hate this frickin' glass!" I growled quietly under my breath, as the crowds of wizards 'ooh'd at my injury.

"Mr. Phantom?" I heard someone say "How did you–?" I picked myself up, fake panting as the scientists quickly gathered.

"My brother..." A fake gasp for air "He tricked my sister!" I pointed behind me "She let him out! He threw me in here!" The crowd gasped, with a good number of them starting to scream already. "I can stop him! Just get me outta here!"

"Oh! I got it! I got it!" A younger scientist gently pushed his way to the front of the gathering crowd. "It's easy, Mr. Phantom." He shined a naive smile in my direction "Just have to..." He pulled a laminated badge from his lab coat "... open up the system maintenance and..." He trailed off into an inaudible mutter as he held the ID badge up against the cobblestone wall.

"What the hell-?" I caught myself "Uh, what the _heck_ are you doing... man?"

A single round stone in the wall suddenly grew neon blue circuits before fading from view. I rushed against the other wall of my cage closer to see it better for myself. Behind where the single stone was, there was a silver, gleaming screen with a small keypad underneath. A control panel? Right there? How the hell could it possibly help me get out of this hellhole?

"Huh." He looked closely at the screen with a skeptical look. "System history says no attempts have been made to open emergency failsafes." He turned to his coworkers "Doesn't look as if anyone's opened the Specimen's containment structures ever. Or even _attempted_ to open it for that matter..."

"Come on!" I groaned. "I don't have time for this! Just open the damn- uh, darn thing already!" A few wizards moved back slightly. I may have let my voice slip from the shrill voice of my former self. "Uh... Please?" I added, fixing my pitching and adding as kind a smile as I could stand to bare.

"Yes, of course!" The man nodded before turning back to the panel "Let's see.. Code is... da-da-da-da-da..." The whole charade was wearing on my nerves. No, not pretending to be my foolish young self; the wizard's so-called 'frantic' efforts were as slow and massively irritating as anything else they did. "Got it! Passcode is 867-5309."

"Idiot!" An older woman yelled, slapping the bumbling man on the shoulder "You're using Common Logarithms! Sparteck-Grade Passcode Generators can only be solved using Advanced _Algorithms_!"

Forgetting myself, I groaned loudly before banging my forehead against the glass of my prison. I _hate_ Wizard banter! I hate it to the point it's almost literally physically painful to listen to. Through my shaggy black human hair, I saw the male scientist turn around towards the woman in a huff.

"Well, **sorry** for majoring in Microbiology instead of Computer Technologies! After all, how could I**not** have known that my algebraic skill would save the facility from being destroy by some psychopathic Banshee! How could I_ not_ know that?"

I could help but growl at the man. **I'm** psychopathic? They strap me down, pump me for all my energy, leave me bedridden and regularly torture and degrade me in the name of science and _I'm_ psychopathic! There is no justice in the world, is there?

"Alright, people settle down." A younger man with glasses spoke up, pushing the lady and the first bumbling scientist aside. "Your attempt at code-cracking was fair. Here's a better solution." The man pulled a twin-pronged device out from his lab coat and aimed it at the panel. A blue electric grow built up around the device before jolting into the small computer. "There we go." the scientist stowed the device away in his coat as a small puff of smoke fumed from the panel.

A pneumatic hiss came from below the floor followed by a metallic groaning. "You may want to step back, Mr. Phantom." I backed up against the wall. The front wall of the glass room dropped a few inches suddenly into the floor with a thud. The fresh air of the outdoors quickly began pouring into my sterilized weather-controlled cell. The wall was soon clanking further and further into the ground below, each inches bringing an ever-intensifying thrill of freedom.

The last inch of the door fell into the floor with a thud. I hesitated. To this day I don't know why. I put one hand around the edge of the side wall, making sure there wasn't some invisible ghost shield as a backup security device. I stepped out of that room, out of my prison, out of my personalized hell.

"Well? Don't just stand there! Go find that monster Banshee!" A younger woman cried, crushing some unlucky man is a obviously painful hug.

"That's OK," I told them, letting my voice start deepening to it's normal pitch "I think I know where he is."

"You do? Where?"

"I'd have to say–" The white rings passed over my body as my smirk became a fanged grin "He's right here!" I charged both hands of energy and fired wide beams into stunned crowd of gawking wizards, sending them flying across the platform and crashing into several tables. "God, you're easy," I laughed, charging another blast in my hands.

A quiet click made me freeze. I barely heard it over my own laughing but dozens of painful occurrences coinciding with that noise trained me to pick it up over almost anything. I grabbed the steel band around my neck. The searing pain of electrocution nearly instantly made my legs buckle under me, with most of the agony raging through my hands as I struggle to tear off the godforsaken device off my neck.

I was **not** about to let some damn piece of metal keep me from my freedom!

* * *

Author's Note:

This story is losing steam fast in the sense that I'm losing interest and the fact that what the next chapter will have is action and I suck at writing action. So, I can't ever predict when I'll finish a new chapter, but I'll always try to work on it and hopefully the chapter will be worth the wait.


	20. Containment Failure

Hmm, so the Banshee found a way to dupe the lower vermin... Perhaps he's more clever more then I wrote him off for. I think he deserves a chance to prove himself... Let's see... Specimen Outbreak Protocol. Status: Engaged. Enter new command: Disengage Outbreak Protocol. And how about we make this fun and apply that to all his Specimen friends... heh. Enjoy your freedom, Your Highness. It will not last long.

* * *

**Dan**

* * *

I always thought that when someone told of a horrible painful experience and says that 'seconds seem like hours', that it was a load of bull. A second is a second. It took one second to just say that. Was that a long period of time? No! A second's very quick and always pass in an instant.

This collar changed that opinion.

All the beatings, blasts and gun fire I've taken over the years had hurt on their own, but the pain would disappear amidst the rushing adrenaline of battle. Now, the sole sensation I felt was pain growing into a echoing burn that pierced my flesh. All of this agony going on for several minutes if not longer, leaving me helplessly writhing on the linoleum floor.

Another quiet click and I rolled on my back with a panting sigh as the collar's shockwaves stopped. Why it turned off, I didn't really care, but God knows the relief I felt. I could only lay on my back as the burning of the electricity started fading from my now raw-skinned neck. My handler would pay for this damnable thing. Even to this day, I'm torn between killing that scrawny blonde as slowly as possible or forcing him into one of these collars and watching his agony as he watched mine.

A hard tug on my cape dragged me back a couple inches. I opened my eyes to see a pitch black mechanize humanoid figure, one of the robotic security droids, pull forward again, dragging me closer to... My eyes widened to see the opened room of the hamster trail was now guarded by another two of the same robots. They were trying to put me back in that glass Hell!

I grabbed the robot's arm and easily tossed that tin-can all the way across the open-air balcony into the opposite wall. In the same motion, I shot into the air, turned around and blasted the other two bots into scrap metal with ease. It felt so good to break things again! But that wasn't the best part. As the androids' body parts fell back to the floor, I rose higher in the air, slowly turning around with a wide grin of my face and two fists of swirling ectoplasm. I was almost disappointed to see the lunch room absolutely abandoned already but at the moment, I didn't care. I just poured more power into my hands, watching the energy I held grow larger and large, cherishing that strips of it weren't tearing off faster then I could replenish it.

A couple hundred feet off the ground or so, I blindly fired my charges, watching the blast on my right crack a tower's wall. From my left, I heard an electric thud and turned in time to see my other blast bouncing off the air and crashing onto the cafeteria platform. All I could see was a small mid-air ripple fade away into a clear horizon of...

The facility's various building and structures stretched out at least a couple miles from where I was floating. Past the buildings, there seemed to be a couple hundred feet of short grass with a several-stories tall brick wall lining the outside. Beyond the wall, what I can only described as being a very dense forest, a jungle more like it, with all the trees and leaves a stark black color.

In the distance, a uncomfortably familiar blue tinted dome rose out above the tree line, shielding a towering city. In retrospect, I do recall hearing a small boom and a puff of smoke coming from the city's outer barrier, but I thought nothing of it. Instead, I smiled. My first demolition in God-knows-how-long would start there. Just needed to find a way out of _this_ shield and... My eyes caught a break in the forest, a long thin path cutting through the jungle from the city straight to the far side of the facility. It had to be a tunnel and whatever defense they had there would be weak enough to smash through.

A ripple in the facility's shield turned my attention directly in front of me, just in time to see three black rockets sailing towards me, exploding on impact. I was blasted into the canyon wall below, painfully crashing into the rock face before dropping into the river at the bottom.

I resurfaced in an instance, understandably angry. "This is _fantastic_!" I yelled "I'm not even awake for a half hour and I've already faceplanted twice," I counted on my finger "almost electrocuted to death," another finger "and shot at by ecto-seeking missiles!" I flew out of the river and turned intangible to drain off the water "So nice to see things going my way..." I grumbled before taking off down stream. They were going to have to do a lot better then that to stop my vengeance.

* * *

**Dr. Percival Goddards Ph.D**

* * *

The white furred creature lowered its head with a growl, his two identical brothers attempting to stalk me, Mr. Phantom and Ms. Fenton. The poor banthradon rose on its back legs and swiped its claws against the glass before dropping down and turning away.

Porter and I were in the Specimen Observation Quarters, the massive storage facility that houses hundreds upon hundreds of different species and subspecies that existed throughout the Realm. Each observation quarter, unfortunately also called a 'holding cell', was inlaid into the wall, with a large clear panel of glass up front to allow my fellow scientists observe a creature's natural behavior. The banthradons were about three to four levels of 'cells' upward, with the four of us on a levitating platform.

"So these are barthadons?" Mr. Phantom asked taking an understandable step away from the observation quarter.

"Banthradons." I politely corrected "And yes, they are."

"They seem pretty mad." Ms. Fenton chimed in. I sighed quietly. Porter, on the other hand, groaned loudly. Ms. Fenton isn't... exactly the type of personality that works with Porter's culture. Complaining is thought of as being too weak to endure and as much as I hate voicing dislike, Ms. Fenton has more then made her opinions clear during her visit. "They wouldn't be upset because they're in such a small cage, would they?"

Porter groaned again, covering his ears with his hands before turning around and starting to walk. "Kota, No! We're not on the ground!" I yelled. Porter froze, one foot over the edge of the platform, staring at a drop of approximately two-and-a-half stories. The young woman folded her arms on her chest, still waiting for an answer. I gave a nervous laugh before clearing my throat. "Banthradons are nomads by necessity only. As long as we feed them well, they are quite content in their quarters as are all the other specimens." A loud lowing from one of the ground level quarters echoed in the hall.

"What was that?" Mr. Phantom asked, looking around.

"Just the Minotaur. I forget his name unfortunately, but I do know we found him all alone in the forest, the poor thing."

"Oh, ok, just a mino- wait, a Minotaur!"

"The Banthradons, Dr. Goddards?" Ms. Fenton spoke up

"Da banthradas, dana Goddards..." Porter mocked in a falsetto voice.

"The reason the Banthradons are upset is because ectoplasm, in a sense, enrages them." I answered, hopefully in a still respectful tone, despite somewhat starting to lose my temper. Oh, dear, I feel so guilty just thinking about being mad at a human like Jasmine... "It activates adrenaline, testosterone, a cornucopia of chemicals in their body to help them hunt ghosts and... well... devour them."

Ms. Fenton nodded, eyes locked onto mine. If I may insert my opinion in here, Jasmine Fenton is a remarkably intelligent human, one most wizards would be hard-pressed to believe could come from such a species.

"The more powerful the ghost, the most chemicals flood into the banthradon's bloodstream, the more aggressive, violent and bloodthirsty the banthradons become." I wanted to stop but I knew withholding information, no matter how trivial, would upset Ms. Fenton. "We actually had to move the banthradons farther away from your brother when he was housed here. You see, they were actually–"

"_Attention,_" It was the robotic announcement voice, echoing in the tall empty hall. "_Class-Ten Banshee specimen security breach in progress."_

"Security breach?" Mr. Phantom asked

"_All personal are required to immediately report to designated safe-rooms. Repeat, all personal are required to immediately report to designated safe-rooms._"

"Oh, dear." It couldn't be... "Children, grab on!" I pulled up my sleeve, for the first time, showing my guests the emergency teleport band the scientists are required to wear at all time on our wrists.

"But why? What's going-?" I felt the children grab my lab coat and instantly pressed the activation button. A cloud of green smoke instantly engulfed us before quickly disintegrating, revealing the lounge-like safe room. Occasionally other scientists would teleport in with a cloud of green as the children looked around the sudden change of scenery.

"This is your panic room?" Mr. Phantom said, obviously pleased with the decor. Well, we have to remain calm during an emergency, and calm surroundings help tremendously. "With a room like this, I wouldn't bother leaving." He threw himself on a couch and plopped his feet up on a coffee table.

"Danny!" Ms. Fenton threw her brother's feet off the table. "This is serious. The other you is loose. We've got to do something about it!"

A colleague of mine from the Defense Division approached "Now, now, children." He stated "There is nothing to worry about. The research center's robotic security forces are more adequate to handle this situation."

"But this is Dan we're talking about," Danny objected, standing up. "You have no idea who you're dealing about. He's a straight up psychopath!"

My coworker smiled condescendingly. "We have studied your brother quite intently. I fully believe that we had a firm grasp of what he is capable-"

"_Emergency,_" It was the female-voiced automated announcements again "_Total specimen containment failure has occurred._"

"Of..." my colleague trailed off before slinking away in awkward and ironic defeat.

"_Alert, all security protocols for all specimen had been deactivated. All personnel that have not done so, are urged to immediately relocated to designated safe areas._"

"I can not believe this!" Mr. Phantom threw his hands up "What, one specimen breaks out and you wire the place to let all the other animals out too!"

"Of course we wouldn't." A female colleague snapped "What fools do you take us for! The only way a complete failure of specimen security could happen is if someone purposefully shut the security systems down."

"How did he even get out anyway?"

"We let him out." A scientist with glasses spoke up."b-b-but only because we thought he was you!"

"Indeed!" A few more recently teleported in coworkers agreed.

"He morphed into your human form, Mr. Phantom!"

"What?" I gasped "That's impossible!" I shook my head, "Daniel said he was related to you_ only_ by your Banshee genetics." I put my hand on my head "How can a full ghost imitate a human? Much less form an exact duplicate of yourself, Mr. Phantom."

"Danny," I heard Ms. Fenton whisper "We need to tell them!"

"We can't." Mr. Phantom whispered back "It might– I don't know. Blow up the universe or something."

"You told me and the universe is still here!"

"ok, ok. I'll tell him."

I turned away, hoping to avoid being accused of eavesdropping. Instead Mr. Phantom, tapped my arm and said "We gotta tell ya something but we gotta be somewhere private. It's about Dan."

"Of course." I nodded "Let me just explain where we're going to Porter and–" I froze. I turned around, looking through the crowd. "Dear God, where's Porter."

* * *

**Dan**

* * *

I zoomed down one hall after another, turning down side passages at random. Occasionally I caught sight of the hamster trail that had been my prison and then I had some idea where I was. But it wasn't helping me find my way out of here.

The hall I was in suddenly ended in a large room the size of a city block and about twelve stories high. The Specimen Holding Facility; where I had been caged before I was sealed away in that dome. There were rows and rows of cells stacked one on top of the other. Balconies ran along the cells so the scientists so studies the creatures inside as well as remove any scrap of privacy, provided that the clear glass front wall gave any cover at all.

The doors had fallen open on all the cells and the creatures and monsters inside had wandered out. There were lions, and tigers, and bears, you know the old rhyme, only the lion was purple, the tiger was a saber-tooth tiger and the bear had antlers like an elk. And those were the semi-normal ones. I saw a giant plant stalking after a cow with giant fangs to match its jagged horns. The plant was walking on three roots and from its massive petal-head flashed out a barbed tongue a yard long, maybe two.

Before the plant could reach the demonic cow a flying carpet dropped out of the sky and smothered the plant. There was a brief struggle under the blanket. The plant thrashed like crazy but after a while it slowed and lay stilled. As I flew pass I could see that it was some kind of starfish shaped animal with webbing between its arms that made it look like a carpet. A ten foot long centipede with four foot long claws was slithering out of the room and down the hall I had come from. I smiled. That should make for a lot of fun when the wizards came out of their hidey holes to see what was going on. By then I intended to be long gone.

Looking around to avoid surprise attacks I made for another exit. This was a narrow corridor and seemed to lead down stairs. Since the subway trains ran underground this seemed like a promising direction. If I could find the train system down there I could get miles away before the wizards could get organized. I needed to put as much space between me and them as I could.

The tunnel took a sudden turn and ended in a small room - small for this place - maybe the size of a gymnasium. There were a set of double doors at the other end of the room so I made for it. I prepared to phase through the doors but found myself slamming into it like a brick wall. One of these days I was going to have to start remembering that intangibility doesn't work here... It took me a minute to pull myself off the floor. Between the electric shock from the collar and smashing into all these doors I was beginning to feel a bit frazzled. When did being a super-villain become so difficult?

I tugged and pulled on the door, hammered on it and blasted it. It didn't budge. I pressed my ear to the door's unscarred surfaced and tried to hear any activity on the other side. Listening for any sound that might suggest breaking through this door would be worth it.

Nothing.

Time was a-wasting and since I wasn't getting anywhere here I took to the air again and raced back up the tunnel.

But as I got to the end I saw something was blocking it. I did not like what I saw. It was a man, or at least a humanoid, about eight feet tall, not counting the horns, which added another foot. It was about eight feet wide at the shoulder, tapering down to narrow hips and crooked legs. His hooves clacked on the tile floor as it stepped towards me. It snorted again, then lowered its head. It may have looked like a man - a gigantic fur-covered man - but its head was full bull. It even had a huge ring stuck through its nose.

"Great." I growled under my breath. Yet another obstacle in my escape. Is it so wrong to want to leave a prison that I could only wish on my enemies? The beast-man thing completely filled the narrow corridor. There was no room to even _try_ to pass him.

"Little man hurt Tyrangamen," the beast growled.

"Didn't ask for your life story." I shrugged "Got a few problems myself..."

"Tyrangamen hurt little man!" the Minotaur snorted, baring his teeth at me. Oh, crap. He thought I was one of the wizards... Idiot.. "Little man steal Tyrangamen from herd, lock in tiny cell, experiment on Tyrangamen. Tyrangamen lived in pain for years!"

"You're preaching to the choir, Tyran...whatever!" I threw my hands in the air. "But if you don't move your gargantuan two-ton ass outta my way in the next ten sec–!"

It hit me with the force of a freight train, snagging me in its horns and dragged me back into the dead-end room. The minute he entered the room he flipping me over its shoulders the length of the room. I hit the wall, leaving a Phantom shaped dent in the metal and flopped to the ground. The beast backed away, letting out a deep lowing roar as he pawed the ground for another charge.

"Hit it on the nose. They don't like that." a voice behind my back told me. I spun around to see who had sneaked up on me. No one was there. But while I was turned around the monster charged and smashed into the wall. Again.

"Don't lose your focus. You'll never defeat the Minotaur if you can't keep track of where it is." the voice near my ear said. I rolled over on my back and looked around. No one was there besides me and this - - 'Minotaur.' Where was the voice coming from - - and who was it?

The Minotaur was closing in to trample on me. I scrambled to my feet and launched into the air. Its hoofs slammed the pavement where I'd been laying a moment before. I tried circling its head but couldn't get in close because its horns seemed everywhere. I threw some plasma bolts at it. They bounced off its hide leaving only small scorch marks. Great. Big, fast and fire-proof! Still my plasma bolts pained it. I could used that to drive it back and give me a chance to regroup and think.

"Finish it, already!" the voice in my ear ordered. I finally realized why I couldn't find the voice. It was coming out of my collar.

"Who the hell are you?" I demanded, keeping up a series of short zaps holding the Minotaur on the far side of the room.

"That's not important. Just kill the Minotaur and get out of there."

"Why should I listen to you?"

"Trust me, I'm on your side."

"You're speaking to me through this restraint collar, that makes you one of these damn scientists and an ally of them."

"Unless you ghosts have a different definition of 'ally', a scientist's ally would not have set you free. And the enemy of your enemy is your friend, yes?"

Instead of answering the man or woman - it was hard to tell. The sound quality of the com-link was poor and the voice harsh and grating - I zoomed towards the Minotaur. I threw a flash of light into the beast's eyes, hopefully binding it. As the monster clawed at its eyes I swooped in close and hammered its nose as hard as I could. Blood spurted everywhere. The monster reeled and feel over backwards squealing in pain.

I pummeled its chest a few times before skipping out of range of its massive fists.

"Why did you stop?" the voice demanded.

"I want to get out of here. I'm not interested in fighting some mythological misanthrope just for the fun of it."

"But you must kill the beast."

"Hey, I've destroyed more life than you've ever seen. I've laid waste to whole worlds. I don't need to destroy some stupid animal to prove myself. I just want to get out of here. If you're really on my side you'll tell me how to get away from this sick prison."

"If you want my help, you'll do as you're told," the voice told me. "You'll get nowhere without me."

I had to smile at that. Nobody tells Dan Phantom what to do! Even as the Minotaur was climbing to his hooves I pointed my hands towards the ceiling and unloosed as powerful a stream of ectoplasm as I was capable at the ceiling. No one ever thinks to re-enforce the ceiling. I had to laugh as the ceiling crumbled and rained down around me. In a minute there was a hole large enough for me to slip through.

The Minotaur was standing and rubbing its bloody nose. It snorted then charged. I slipped around it and soared up through the hole in the ceiling. I could hear the Minotaur smash into the wall when it missed me. I laughed. It was about time he got a bit of his own medicine.

"You're just going to leave that thing down there?" the voice coming out of my collar asked.

"That's the plan," I said. "Why do you care what happens to that bastard?"

"I have my reasons..." It answered "I'll spare you the incomprehensible details."

"Ri-i-i-ight," I answered sarcastically. "Dare I ask who you are or are we gonna have to play the 'on-a-need-to-know-basis game'?" I asked.

"We're playing the 'on-a-need-to-know-basis' game," the scratchy voice told me. I could almost make out a small chuckle among the crackle of the audio.

"Whatever...Whoever you are, I know you're probably someone important," I told him - or her. "Who else could turn off this damned collar on my neck. And you're probably the one that opened all the doors to these monster. And since you seem able to see everything I do, you've hacked into this building's security system, right?"

"Or I could be the janitor." the voice immediately answered in a bored tone "There are two sets of master keys. One for the director of operation and the other for the janitor. Someone has to clean up the shit around here. Maybe I just got tired of cleaning up everyone else's crap!"

"Can't say I've talked to a lot of janitors. Probably killed some but the ones I've talked to didn't sound like some college professor."

"We're all wizards here. Even the most retarded of our kind is smarter than any ghost that's even been." I scoffed at the voice. "Take a left at the next conjunction," it added.

I went right.

"I said _left_, jackass. You'll get in trouble going down that way."

"Hey, I didn't get this far in life by following order!" I tell the voice, zooming near the ceilings to surprise anyone looking on the floor for escaped specimens.

"Oh, yes, I forgot how teeming with success you are at the moment." the voice answered in vindictive sarcasm. "Listen to me. Don't be a fool, well, _more _of a fool. I have got the robotic guards distracted down the other way."

"Robots? Oh, please!" I mocked,

The hall turn a curve and as I rounded the turn I came face to face with... the whole corridor, a corridor wide enough for two buses to drive side by side, filled with identical security drones. Their black colored armor had lifted to show guns sprouting from inner mechanics. All were aimed at me. I spray the place with plasma fire. One or two or the nearer machines keel over and start smoking. The rest remained with their weapons pointed at me.

"_Specimen 972498, you are surrounded by security droids"_ This wasn't the voice from my collar. This was something else, a somehow familiar female sounding voice but with an electronic hint to its diction, coming out clear as a bell from the announcement speakers in the hall._ "Please surrender now before you are hurt._"

Surrender was not part of my plan.

I sweep the hall with more ectoplasmic fire and reversed my course. None of the security droids looked especially fast. I figured I could fly ahead of them.

"Congratulations! Fifteen minutes into your escape, you, sir, have already managed to doomed yourself. You've got ALLI on your tail." the voice from my collar said.

"I can outrun some broad."

"No, you can't. ALLI is the resident AI unit. She's fully connected with every digital operation and all electrical equipment. She can track all monitors at once. She controls all security droids, knows where every single one of them is at all times and how quickest to get them where she wants them.."

"Then we need to shake her up a little," I said and blasted the ceiling. Like most commercial ceilings, it was a light tile that covered utilities like electricity, water, drains maybe. The tiles shattered into a hundred pieces, falling like a sudden snowstorm. That should block any monitors behind me. Ahead I could see the black plastic domes mounted in the ceiling. They may call themselves wizards and claim to be ten times smarter then humans but they still stuck security cameras in on ceilings in obvious bubbles. They never thought there might be someone dangerous inside this center so they never thought to be tricky about their cameras. I sprayed ectoplasm down the hall, lancing out all the camera I could find.

"What the hell are you doing?" the collar voice called out suddenly. "I can't help you much without those camera, idiot!"

"I'm sick of playing games!" I told the voice. "I want _out_ of this place. And I will tear this place apart brick by brick if I have to, to get out. You want this place to be still standing in the morning, you'll tell me how to get out of here. Otherwise-"

"_Hello?_" the AI's voice rang, sounding slightly pre-rehearsed and slightly more worried. "_Are you still there? There's no reason to be afraid." _Was she serious... _Me_, afraid? _"I wasn't going to hurt you. Please come back."_

I paused outside the doors to some large room, maybe a conference room, maybe a gaming center, I didn't know or cared. I took a quick circuit of the room leaving nothing standing when I left. "What's it going to be, voice? Do I leave or do I smash?"

"I _was_ going to lead you to the central generator before you decided on your detour into ALLI's task force." the voice spoke somewhat petulantly. "When you get back to the intersection where I told you to take a left, this time _take it!_"

"_No, don't go!_" the AI's voice begged over the intercom. "_Whoever is illegally hacking your discouragement collar to communicate to you is __not__ of sane mind, Specimen 972498! No one of rational mind would–_" Stomping of heavy mechanic footstep on the ground brought the security bots from around the corner. "_**Halt!**_"

I shot up into the crawl space of the ceiling, hearing some of the shots fired ripping through my cape as I took off in the voice's advised direction... as if I had a choice anymore. It was uncomfortably similar to the hamster trail of my old cell: little room to fly other then the direction of the pipe.

I figured if whoever this person was could hear me through the collar, I could ask them a few things myself "Why's GLaDOS giving me the Jekyll-and-Hyde routine?" I started.

I could hear the voice mutter "who?" before speaking up to actually be heard. "As the AI of a specimen testing facility, ALLI's programed to help ensure the safety and well-being of all specimens."

"Well, I think we can call _that_ protocol a dud!" I blurted "Unless AI's have glitches where they randomly try to kill people."

"She's not trying to kill you; emergency protocol demands that she recapture you."

"Fantastic..." I groaned "Wouldn't want my life to be easy, now would we?"

"But that programing seems to only override the specimen safety protocol when she actually has a chance at catching you."

"Ah! The old 'conflicting orders' routine..." I broke back down from in the ceiling into the corridor once it seemed like the security drones had been lost. "Where's this generator that seems so damn important to you." I demanded.

"Unless you enjoy ALLI after you, shutting her down is going to have to be important for you as well. Take two lefts, then a right and down the maintenance shaft." the voice in my collar told me.

"_Specimen 972498, you are heading into a restricted area. Your safety can not be assured, please return to your containment area for your own safety._" I swear to God I'd heard her voice somewhere in this place before.

Left, left. I was looking for the right hand turn when the ALLI dork came over the PA again.

"_Specimen 972498, you are entering a restricted area. The area in the direction you are going is under the control of MilSec. There will be defense grade security drones there which are not under my control and are not limited by the general protocol for Specimen protection. For you own safety, please return to your containment area._"

I just rolled my eyes. The people around here think asking nicely will solve their problems. Though, I'll admit, if it did, it would definitely explain why I've had very little success so far.

The shaft ended in a wide, low ceilinged room. The machine that lay in waiting was the largest robot I had ever seen, twice as big as anything I could have imagined. It was a very tall flat bodied droid supported on four tremendously long stilt-like legs, squatting to fit under the low ceiling. The open 'mouth' of the robot started glowing a deep red with a high-pitched, rising whine.

"Get out of there!" my collar screamed at me.

I turned around and shot off at top speed as a thunderous explosion erupted behind me. The machine's legs sounded like they were crushing into the cement floor as they stomped after me. I soared up the hall and quickly shot straight up as soon as I bust through the door. I was met with a painfully familiar glass surface.

I turned to see that, once again, my hamster trail served as a literally painful reminder of my slavery to this unbearable hell hole. With the increasingly loud pounding of the machine behind me, I shook off the, -what fourth? Fifth?- head injury I had gotten in less then two hours and backed against the opposite wall.

The wall exploded in a cloud of dust and debris, my confining tunnel system crashing down as the machine slunk through the hole it created. The machine straightened it's stilt-legs until it stood about twenty feet tall, although surprisingly unthreatening in appearance. It just looked like a large beetle with long legs.

It flashed a red grid-ed light across the room that quickly shrunk to a fine laser point aimed at my collar. I charged my hands with energy. "Janitor, what's it doing?" The laser vanished and a small antenna rose from the back of the robot's body, showering the entire machine in a light-green energy shield.

"That is a Military-grade Walker Unit." The voice finally answered "And it just downloaded your personal Specimen information on your collar to tell it all we know about you to help it figure out how to capture you... Good luck."

A small hatch opened up on either side of the machine and twin guns rolled out and locked into place. I fired at the legs before taking off. Something that large couldn't be too fast.

Immediately after I took off, the war-machine released a rapid volley of white energy after me, quickly recalculating where it should fire next. I inverted myself and lobbed a large blast at the droid. The blast knocked hard against the shield surrounding the machine, sending it stumbling back a half-step, temporarily ceasing its gunfire.

I tore around a corner and powered on for a few moments before glancing back. It wasn't even following me. "So much for that."

A thick cloud of green smoke appeared literally out of nowhere in front of me and a long metal leg shot out, slamming me against the corridor's wall. The 'Walker' machine's body lower out of the smoke as I tried to pull myself out of being pinned against the wall. It flashed the red grid light on me again before the dangerous whirring and red glow started growing front the machine's front, which was approximately ten feet away from my face.

It was an inspired idea, not to mention pure brilliance. A quick flash of the old white rings, and I was small enough to slip enough to tear free, ripping the old white shirt in the process, before quickly changing back to my true form. The walker managed to fire off a few shot of its side-cannons as I shot up and crashed through the ceiling tiles. A half-second later, a blinding red-hot blast tore through the ceiling behind me. I turned to see a gaping, crumbling hole opening all the way up to the room above. I sighed. "Why does everything have to want to kill me?"

One of the Walker's leg shot through the tiles in front of me, pulling part of the already destroyed remains down. I turned invisible and flew across the gap. The red grid light flashed out and the war-machine let out a kind of electronic gasp, before firing its side guns. The suddenness of the attack caught me off guard and one single blast flung me into the upper room.

I crashed on the ground, stinging pain all down the right side of my body. I looked. Part of my jumpsuit had been torn away, my skin underneath a charred dark purple on the side where I had hit.

The Walker gave a long mechanical moaning as it continued to tear away at the ceiling.. uh, floor... er, where it was digging for me before, occasionally flashing the red grid-ed light to scan for me. I suppose I should give the wizards credit. They knew how to make an efficient war-machine. Durable, powerful, obviously intelligent. And this was just the first responding droid. They would probably scramble their military, bringing in more advanced, devastating machinery.

But I would **not** surrender. I couldn't stand the idea of being a prisoner anymore!

I got up, not without pain, and sat back down against one of the desks in what looked to be a normal chemistry lab. I put my head back and closed my eyes before blasting the security camera in the far corner. I needed a few minutes to catch my breath and come up with a better plan.

* * *

Author's Notes: Longest chapter thus far and I even uploaded it a day earlier then I intended to put it up. From now on, I'm only going to put up chapters on the 27th. Pros is that you now have idea of when my next chapter might be uploaded. Cons is I might finish early and the anticipation of uploading it just kills me. Other Pro is if I finish early, I can refine and perfect the wording to insure your maximum enjoyment.


	21. Predators

**Tyrangamen the Minotaur**

* * *

The Powers damn that tiny specter! I have never deserved such agony. I have done no evils. Yet evil surrounded me. Calf-napped in my helpless youth by those horrid, strange-talking sorcerers, only to be freed into a fight with some... some... demon.

I couldn't help but keep a hold on my nose. Blood was still dripping from it.

I had never seen beyond my cell before so I had little idea where I was going or coming from. The sorcerers' machinery was everywhere, and I knew they used it to hurt me time and time again. I knew it well that one is never safe in an enemy land.

I exited the passage and saw a predator, what my kind call 'Hunters', at the ends of a hunt, carrion gripped in a killing hold. He must have been sent by my captors! I stomped the ground with a roar. "Tyrangamen will hurt Hunter!" I yelled in the magician's language.

He turned to me and dropped the purple deer-like creature. "You are a specimen, yes?" He spoke in my native tongue.

I looked around. I did not see any of the sorcerers. It was difficult to believe, yet perhaps this stranger was not one of the evils of my life. But one is never too careful in evil lands. "I am slave to this dungeon," I answered lowering my horns. "nothing more."

"The Banshee has hurt you," the hunter continued, with a grin. "Didn't he?

I brushed my hand under my snout. A small red smear came off on the back of my hand, the older blood now turned to crust on my nose. "What is your purpose here?" I growled

"I seek the Banshee." he answered "As do you."

"I want freedom!" I roared

"And you will receive it..._ after_ the Banshee receives his just punishment."

* * *

**Dan**

* * *

"Don't call my name, don't call my name, Alejandro..."

"Dave, cut it out."

I stirred and stretched out. Hey, if you slept on a desk, you'd be achy too.

"I'm not your babe, I'm not your babe, Fernando..."

"Dave, seriously!"

I turned invisible and peek out from the gapping hole in the floor. It was someone, I was certain it was a living being, standing directly below me, head bobbing. The man was covered in hardened black armor from head to toe with a steel helmet, the tinted viser obscuring his face.

"Don't want a kiss, don't want a touch, just smoke my cigarette an' hush–" His voice sounded mechanized, like it was being altered to mask the soldier's true voice. "Don't call my name, don't call my name–"

"DAVE!" The second, deeper altered voice screamed "STOP IT!"

The first soldier grabbed his helmet with a yell. Another soldier flew into my view and landed in front of the first. The first soldier tore off his helmet, reveling a pale ghost with light blue hair, before slamming it on the ground "Goddamn it Mike! You nearly blew my fucking eardrums out over the goddamn radio!"

"And _I'm_ about to blow your brains out if you don't stop listening to that wretched human music." The second soldier retorted "And the name is Michelangelo!"

I actually settled down on the edge of the hole to watch this play out. I had been forced to play a fool and a klutz for as long as I was imprisoned in this place. It was nice to have someone else be the fool for my entertainment.

The first soldier pick up his helmet. "Oh, look at me." The ghost said mockingly "I'm a fancy-pants vampire. I use my full name so no one knows I SUCK!"

"Alright, that's it."

The apparent vampire slid a foot long metal rod out of a side pocket and, with a flick, the end of the rod started sparking. The ghost quickly put on his helmet before laughing in some ridiculous triumph. The vampire hesitated a split second before bashing the rod into the other man's head. The ghost let out a yelp before falling on the ground, slowly curling up in a ball in pain. I stifled my laughter. It didn't look like either of these idiots were very concerned with finding me, or me finding them I should say.

"That's right." the vampire said "That metal helmet of your's conducts electro-magnetic energy pretty good, doesn't it?"

I grimaced. Suddenly they weren't so harmless. That stun stick looked like it could take out a normal ghost with one hit. I, of course, am not normal by any stretch of the imagination, but it would definitely hurt. On a closer look, they also had guns strapped to their sides. Not the laser canons Valerie took to waving around but machine guns. And I was 95 percent sure I couldn't just phase the bullets through me.

The vampire sighed before turning off the rod and holstering it. "I hope you know I'm more embarrassed by just being seen with the likes of you then you are being beaten." He stated. "Hang on." He put a hand on the side of his helmet. "This is Recon Team Bravo-Tango-Charlie. Go ahead." They must've been talking over a radio. The ghost soldier managed to get to his feet before his partner addressed him "One of the Walker units found a couple of Graffel dead near the specimen containment hall. Probably a Krip or some other kind of predator, but they want someone to check it out anyway."

"Good!" The ghost stated "I got a feelin' something's bad's about to happen soon anyway."

"Well, then you stay here where the Banshee was last seen, and I'll go check out what our mystery hunter is."

"What!"

The vampire pressed a button on his armband and vanished in a green cloud.

"Jesus!" the ghost threw his hands up.

I stood up, still invisible. I actually had to think a bit. Do I leave and remain undetected until I inevitably run into another giant robot with laser cannons, or vent my frustrations and anger out with a surprise attack on this deliciously ignorant weakling.

"This is bullshit!" the ghost below continued, "What the hell am I supposed to do now?"

I smiled, charging my hand with energy while dropping my invisibility.

"Just sit around and wait for that over-grown brat of a Banshee to come an— _**SHIT**_!"

A blur of white shot across my view before tackling the soldier to the floor, follow by two more identical blurs. I crouched down to watch. Two white turtle-backed leopard-like beasts were tearing into the ghost's arms and upper body as the third ripped up the black armor from his chest.

I supposed most would find the man's screaming bloodcurdling, but after all the years I've heard screams of agony and terror, screaming isn't as disturbing or thrilling anymore. Tsk, tsk. It's so hard to find an honest thrill in life anymore. Intrigue, however, was more then bountiful in this facility. I could have sworn I saw that species before.

I had! In my old cell! They had been stored across from me in a much larger cell. I recall their constant roaring and snarling, all seemingly aimed at me for some reason. Eventually, the wizards moved them somewhere else in the holding facility after the beasts roar had turned into ramming against the glass repeatedly in an attempt at getting at me.

The third of the identical animals tossed the breastplate of the armor aside before ripping into his stomach area. Between screams, I could see him fluxing between from intangible to invisible, neither slowing the animals down any. A final pained yell and the creature violently tore a stomach looking organ from the ghost's body. The other two let go of the corpse, I figured he had to be dead– or deader– because his glow died away, before trying to tear the organ away from the third.

"And here I thought this was a dog-eat-dog world," I sneered towards the voice in my collar, "but apparently it's more of a ghost-eat-ghost world. Ha! And people complain about me."

The organ was soon torn in pieces and quickly devoured, the other two creatures returning to the body for more. The third lifted up it's head to swallow its piece whole, its eyes narrowing as they met mine. It immediately gave a loud roar before jumping on top of one of my hamster tube in up to the room I was in.

I fell backwards, catching the snarling jaw of the beast as it tackled me to the ground. As the beast and I thrashed on the ground, the tips of my fingers started burning. I looked from the creature's raging eyes and saw my gloves dissolving in the beast's saliva, my skin turning black on contract with a surging pain.

Suddenly, my arm was yanked back by the jaw of another of those monsters. The second beast tore into my biceps, freeing the first to clamp down on my other hand. I fired a blast into the first animal's mouth, sending it reeling back against the wall. Before I could even reach the second monster, the first return and clamped down on my other arm.

A clatter of claws, and the third beast, the bloodiest of the pack, reached the battlefield that that lab had become. Almost as if on cue, the two monsters that were tearing into me pulled my arms back and pressed them down on the ground. The third charged at me with a roar and a pounce, aiming at my torso.

I slammed my legs into the animal's underbelly, its long slobbering jaw snapping shut only inches from my face. I kicked the beast across the room, and used the momentum to tear my hands out of the other animal's mouths. I quickly shot a blast into the ceiling and shot up into the vent. One of the beasts tried to follow, but the vent proved to small to navigate with a hard shell.

"Where does this go?" I asked the collar, but the ductwork must have interfered with reception because I got no reply.

When I saw some light ahead I followed it to a grilled vent overlooking an empty hall. I looked but couldn't see any cameras in the ceiling. This looked like a good place to get out of the air duct. No ghost-eating monster, no AI driven security robots, I might actually have a moment or two without some looming threat ready to kill me.

I bashed the grill off the vent and soared out My first thought was to get the Banthradon's slobber off of me. Most of my hands and arms were burned into a dark purple color with boils, proof that my very skin was dissolving, (which is exactly as painful as it sounds).

I tore through the ceiling tile and searched for the fresh water line, ripped the pipe open and let the water shower over me. I could feel the fire from that accursed slime fading away as it slid of my skin and my jumpsuit, which had been reduced to little more then my pants, belt and cape. I looked at my wounds. Not doubt, they would take a while to heal but without the slime making it worse that would just be a matter of time.

There was a "poof" of displaced air and a cloud of the familiar green smoke. "What now?" I thought angrily and waited for the smoke to dissipate. What had the stupid AI teleported into this place.

"Specimen 972498," the voice of ALLI echoed in the corridor, "you have been seriously hurt and are in need of immediate medical attention. Transportation have been arranged. Please enter this designated vehicle so you may be returned to the medical ward and your injuries cared for."

In the hall way, just beyond me, was a square metal tram, suspended in the air by a thin white laser. Teleportation. They were so good with it, I was surprised that they didn't use it all the time.

"Please enter the vehicle for prompt medical attention." ALLI reminded me.

"Oh, well, since you asked so nicely," I yelled in sarcasm. "I guess I'll just **have** to do that!"

"But I can not guarantee your safety out in these halls. The Banthradons are loose and capable of tracking and killing any ectoplasmic based life-forms."

"I can take care of myself!" I said.

"Your present condition states otherwise. Return to your designated habitation where you will be safe and cared for."

"Bite my ectoplasmic ass you silicon bitch!"

"My programming chips are not based on primitive silicon substrates." ALLI said in her annoyingly unperturbed and painfully reasonable voice. God, what I wouldn't give just to hear her sounding annoyed - or even angry.

I charged my hands with energy, just pouring in as much as I could, before blasting into the side of the tram. The transport crumpled like tin fold as it crashed into the opposite wall. I laughed as I brushed off my hands.

Suddenly, an overwhelming current surged through my collar, penetrating my raw neck. It was a shock strong then any I had even had before or since. I was pretty much instantly sent crumbling to the floor in agony. The shockwaves ended eventually, leaving me actually shaking from the havoc the electricity played on my nerves.

"Specimen 972498," ALLI stated, as calm and formal as ever "you have been disciplined to quell unaccountable violence toward your caretaker."

"Unaccountable?" I yelled. I could barely stand after that shock and still this computer, which probably cost several million dollars to build, couldn't even grasp the indignities I have suffered at these people's hands!

Once I more or less recovered, I dived back into the air vent and rushed down it with all the speed I could muster. When I spotted a vertical shaft I dove down it, figuring that the generators would be in the lowest part of the building. The air temperature started dropping which confirmed my suspicious. I was near the compressor. The air had to be really cold down here so that by the time it reached the far ends of the facility, it would have warmed up to a comfortable level. When I spotted a hatch on the side of the air shaft I kicked it open and flew out.

And there I was, in the generator room. But I think I came as close to paling as a ghost can when I saw what the generators were...

"Ho-ly shit..."


	22. Power

**Dr. Percival Goddards PhD**

* * *

I sat hunched over on the couch in my living quarters, where Mr. Phantom and Ms. Fenton had spoken to me about Daniel. All this time, Daniel had been an alternative version of Danny Phantom? It seemed impossible, and yet... nothing I knew of Daniel conflicted with their testimony.

I sighed and shook my head. Daniel played upon my ignorance in his desperate attempt at freedom, and now everything that he did, all the chaos and destruction he creates would be on my head.

"I can't believe Daniel would use me like this." I uttered into my hands.

"He's evil!" Mr. Phantom stated loudly "What did you expect!"

"I don't believe in evil, Mr. Phantom." I answered sternly "Every creature is capable of some degree of kindness and compassion."

"We _**all**_ want to believe that, Dr. Goddards," Ms. Fenton said, obviously trying to counsel me "but he tried to _kill_ me. He tried to kill our friends and family. If that's not evil–"

"There must be a logical explanation." I sighed "No sane being would turn on his relations like that without–"

An alarm when off on my wrist-band. No I.D. came up so I hesitated a second before answering. "Hello?"

"_Dr. Goddards,_" The automated voice stated "_I require assistants with the Specimen Containment Procedure._"

"Who's that?" Mr. Phantom asked

"The facility's resident AI unit." I answered in a hushed voice. "Where's Daniel now?"

"_Specimen 972498 is in the main generator room." _The AI's voice stated in a monotonous tone_"The fore-mentioned specimen intends to disable power to the facility and I fear for my existence. As you are Specimen 972498's primary expert, you are the sole qualified employee to determine if greater precautions and tactics must be deployed for its capture. Will you allow the forgoing of Endangered Specimen Protection Protocol to aid in the banshee's capture?"_

"What the heck's a Banshee?" Mr. Phantom spoke up yet again

"Did the computer just say that my brother's jerky older self is an endangered species?" Ms. Fenton added in a concerned tone

I looked away. Daniel was clearly hellbent on causing as much damage to the facility as possible, either looking for a means of escape or searching to end his former self to sealing him away in the cylindrical device that came into my possession. Regardless of his true motive, I had to protect Mr. Phantom and his innocent sibling. And I had to stop Daniel before he hurt anyone.

"A.L.L.I," I said into my communicator, "Try to secure a path from here to the Portal Testing Chamber, and have a Hazardous Environment Protection Suit waiting for me."

"_Yes, Sir, Dr. Goddards._" A.L.L.I. replied. "_And the Endangered Specimen Protection Protocol_?

I sighed. There really was no other way... "Deactive Protection Protocol." I stated

"_My simulation of the event's probable outcome have determined that you have made the right choice, sir._" The comlink went quite.

"I only pray I haven't condemned a lost soul in the process..."

* * *

**Dan**

* * *

The generator was like nothing I expected. Inside a cube of scaffolding rotated a giant silvery ball with a large vat of faintly glowing green goo stagnating underneath. With my luck so. Sticking out of the ball were scores of long slender rods that ended in small balls, glowing brightly with intense energy. After a moment I realized that the central ball wasn't rotating; it was these smaller rods and balls. The central ball looked solid but the rods with their balls slid around the surface of the ball without wave or ripple. Their movements seemed random but the balls never touched. From time to time two would get close and bolts of lightning would flash from one to the other. There was a crackling of energy greater than I'd ever seen before.

But the horror of it all was that in each of those orbiting little balls was a trapped ghost. I couldn't see them, the glare of light coming out of them was too intense for that. But a ghost knows when another ghost is near by, and there were a lot of them. All being drained of their energy to provide power for these miscreant "magicians." For all their goody-two-shoes play-acting, there was a dark side to them. enslaving ghosts for their power. Those damnable "Wizards." I wondered what would happen if a hundred angry ghosts were suddenly loosed upon them.

Lining the sides of the wall were pods, each about six-feet tall, man-sized to be exact. I touched down on a maintenance catwalk and held my hand over my eyes to see into one. I cleared away the layer of dust, and sneered. A ghost, one about as old as I am, lay unconscious, wiring threaded in and out of his body, most of which connected to a much bulkier, older-looking Ecto-Converter that in turn ran out of the pod and into the wall.

"Marvelous, isn't it?" The voice from my collar chirped happily "One thousand seven hundred eighty-three ghosts. Of course, none of them have the energy output capabilities you do."

"What the hell is this?" I growled, looking around at the other pods.

"Welcome to the Ectoplasmic Conversion Center, also known as the Generator Room. But ask any law enforcement agency in the Realm, and they'll say it a Hall of the Condemned. You see, my little idiot, this is what happens to ghosts with too much power that start thinking that rules don't apply to them. "

I had to ponder that statement. This race would have still existed whether I changed into current form or stayed my weakened half-human self. No matter what I did, that rule would still have applied. "Then why didn't they do it to me?" I asked myself, looking into a few other pods.

"What was that." the voice demanded.

"I said why don't you just use gasoline or coal or nuclear power, stuff like that?"

The voice laughed "First of all, we burned the last of the Realm's fossil fuels back in the 1890s. Second, nuclear power produces a shit load of hazardous material and the eco-freaks don't let us dump it in the Forest. Third, I'll make it quick 'cause I know your attention span won't hold out much longer, over 97 percent of ghost energy can be converted to pure energy with the residue easily hardened and possessed into a variety of ghost-proof materials, like your Exploration Vent for example."

"_All the more reason you __shouldn't be here__._" ALLI butted in, its female voice echoing in the giant hollow chamber. _"This area is restricted to authorized personnel __only__. You are unqualified._" I rolled my eyes. "_Return to your habitat at once or you __will__ receive disciplinary actions against you._"

I scoffed before lifting up in the air and floating towards the most important looking piece of machinery. I dove towards the Generator. Destruction on a large scale loomed. The joy of it filled my soul.

"_Specimen 972498 you are entering a restricted area,_" the voice of ALLI echoed in the large room. "_For your own safety please leave this area before Generator Security becomes activated. I can not guarantee your safety in that case._" The computer said in her ever soft, reasonable sounding voice.

"All I want is to get out," I told it. "If you don't want this obscenity of a generator smashed all you have to do his open the doors to let me out of this place."

"_I can not do that, Specimen 972498. My programming requires that I prevent the release of dangerous creatures into the environment._"

"Then I hope you're got a couple a double-A's for back-up, because I'm taking the power down!"

Flying between the immense scaffolding surrounding the generator I could feel strange energies coursing through my body but I didn't care. I slammed into the first rod on the generator with my shoulder. It snapped off like a glass rod. It was almost too easy. I hadn't counted on the torrent of ectroplasm erupting out of the rod, though. It stung something fierce but I didn't care. I could absorb some of that energy, add it to mine and flash bolts of fire to dozens of dozens of nearby rods. They fell like I'd taken a scythe to the sphere.

Lightning was flashing everywhere from the destroyed rods. Alarms were sounding, the grinding noises were coming out of the giant sphere. The scaffolding surrounding, and apparently floating the sphere in the air started collapsing as stray bolt of fire melted the metal structure. The sphere started to list. Already panels mounted on the floor of the great room were starting to explode in sparkly fire as the surging loads overwhelmed their capacities. God, how I loved it. It had been a long time since I'd seen such awesome carnage.

I must have been laughing too long because suddenly I was gripped in great steel claws. I struggled with all my might but these claws were too tough for me to break. The claws descended from an overhead crane. The one's I'm used to have a simple hook to pick up loads but this had descended from a flexible metal cable that ended in these giant pincers. A Second claw was coiled up under the platform of the crane. I supposed there needed something like that to work on their generator.

A new voice, one that I didn't recognized announced in its calm, impersonal voice., "Threat level alpha object secured. Generator operation status is 52%."

Then ALLI's interrupted, "_Opening transit portal to ectoplasmic confinement area. Please deposit Threat Level Alpha object in designated containment area._"

The claw started dragging me out of the generator. The articulated arm had twisted and turned like a corkscrew to get in past all the scaffolding, especially since so much of it had collapsed and now lay on top of each other. As it cleared the generator I saw a hole form in the floor below me a fairt green cloud of smoke swirling around it's edges. Through the hole I could see a brightly lit area. Slowly, an messy looking bed with this damned place's insignia on in come into view. It was the bedroom in my cell!

I struggled with the claw with all my might. When I put my mind to it I can bend a lot of steel like so much cookie dough. The claws wouldn't budge. I tried throwing ectroplasm at them until my own skin started to burn, but none of that heat softened them up an iota.

The hole in the floor was getting closer and my chances of freedom were starting to look bleak when I remembered: My real form was big and muscular but my teen self... that was so much smaller, it was almost embarrassing that I ever looked like that.

Twin rings of lights erupted frm my waist and raced to either end of my body, leaving behind the body of a teen age boy. I easily slipped between the metal fingers of the claw, hearing them snapped against themself as they tried to catch my smaller form. I hit the floor painfully, not having time to change back to my ghostly self. I eyed everything around me, decided that the generator needed a but more smashing and changed back to ghost and rocketed back to that giant rotating sphere.

52% operational? Hah! I wasn't going to satisfied until it was 0% operational. I swooped through the listing scaffolding and down towards the remains forest of rods and imprisoned ghosts.

"What do you think you're doing?" the voice in my collar asked. "I wanted you to disable the generator, not to tear it to pieces. I just want a blackout of a couple hours. If you destroy the generator it will take **months **to rebuild it!"

"Well, sucks to be you then!"

While chatting with the garbled voice,I had been dodging the two manipulators from the overhead crane. The Generator Security computer, using a barking masculine voice was declaring me the enemy of the world, which I liked, and prophesying my imminent destruction, which I've heard a thousand times before. Better armies than it have tried.

* * *

**Tyrangamen the Minotaur**

* * *

The Hunter lead me on a confusing trail through the confinement area. Destruction was all around us. It was like we were following a natural disaster. Walls were scorned from laser fire, or smashed all the way through from cannons or maybe some large hurtling body. Like the little demon who hurt me so badly. The Hunter was fearless in his march. It heartened me. For all my size and strength, I do not like violence and seeing all this damage, frankly was getting on my nerves. Oh, how I wish I could return to my herd, to my Dame and Sire. For the time, the Hunter would be my Sire and I his herd. He would protect me.

The Hunter stopped. He wrinkled his nose, sniffing something that I couldn't detect. He breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly. "Banthradons!" he exclaimed. "Come, this way." And set off down a corridor full of smoke.

"Are we approaching or leaving the Banthradons?" I asked.

"They will be our allies," the Hunter said.

"They are nasty, ferocious hunters," I complained.

The hunter laughed harshly. "Are you made of ectoplasm?" he asked, then went on before I could answer. "Banthradon's only attack creatures made of ectoplasm. Like the Banshee, and unlike you or I. They will be our allies and bloodhounds."

We found them a short ways on. There were three. Two were battered more than I'd expect for a creature with a horny shell on its back. The third was gasping for breath and stirring weakly. The scent of Death hang all about him. The Hunter talked to the first two Banthradons in their own language for a minute. They seemed to argue or perhaps it was that their speech was harsh and demanding to my ears. After a moment the Hunter came back. He took me by the arm and lead me aside. "They have asked my to give the Stroke of Mercy to their companion, who is dying, gentle Bull. Do not look." And turning we away from the predator creatures, he walked back. A moment later there was a sharp crack that sent a shiver up my spine. Then the Hunter came back for me and the two Banthradons lead is on after the demon. I looked back and saw the third Banthradon lying still on the floor, no longer struggling. I turned away with a shudder. Although I wish the death to this demon yet I cringe at the sight of death. What did this poor Minotaur ever do to deserve a life like this?

* * *

**Dan**

* * *

I'd tried to damage that giant mechanical claws on my own but they were proof against my ectoplasm fire. The two of them had me trapped on one side of the giant sphere of the generator. If I tried to go either right or left there would be one of the claws snapping after me, steering with incredible accuracy, no doubt tracking my collar just like that giant Walker.

I'd destroyed a bunch more of the rods and gotten its operational status down to 24% but I was running out of things to smash being penned up on this one side of the generator.

The thought came to me. Maybe I could use the generator against itself. Dodging one of the claws I reached one of the remaining rods and started hauling it close to the claw. The rod slid around on the surface of the great sphere. It wasn't easy pushing it around; it seemed to have its own mind where it wanted to go, but I finally got it where I wanted it. I moved a short ways away from it and stuck my tongue out at the claw. I doubt it responded to the insult but seeing me available, the claw lashed forwards on its flexible tentacle and snapped at me.

I dodged away. Slipped around to the other side of the rod and tempted the claw again. It lashed out. I moved and waited, It struck at me. I moved again. It snapped at me again and again in rapid succession, hoping to get me before I had moved out of its way. I was to the right of the giant power generating rod. Each time the claw struck at me I moved to the left. The third time it struck the rod was in front of me. The claw was moving too fast for whatever sense system it was using to realize its situation. The claw snapped clean through the rod. Torrents of ectoplasm geyser-ed from the severed rod. The power flowed up the tentacle connected to the claw.

The strident voice of the Generator Security system bellowed out "Danger! Danger Imminent Failure! Dan-" and that was all she wrote. The lights in the room died except for a few small battery powered emergency lights. A vast silence fell over the place as pumps, blowers, and compressors stopped. You never realize how noise a place can be until everything in it stops.

I listened for a moment to see if anyone else was going to scold me for being such a wicked little body. Nothing. I wouldn't be free until I was out of this place but the road before me seemed suddenly wide open.

In the dim light I could see where I made come from, a path well marked by destruction. There was nothing for me back there. In the other direction I saw a large corridor leading off into the darkness. It was large enough to ran a jet airplane through. that's probably where they brought in all the large machinery here. That meant it was the shortest distance to the outside. I plunged down into its darkness.

I had hardly gone any distance before I started seeing flashes of light up ahead. Some were sharp, red-colored. Laser lights I figured. Others were a softer, lingering yellow. I couldn't figure out what those were.

I slowed down so as to not run into whatever going on ahead.

The corridor made a small curve. Rounding it I was astonished to find a full size Disney-esque Dragon squatting in the middle of the hall, swatting at a bunch of soldiers, tiny looking even in their full body armor. They were firing lasers at the beast, most of which ricocheted off the heavy scales of the beast. It, in turn, would belch great balled of yellow fire at the troopers. The soldiers would scramble out of the way of the fireball but if one was too slow and was hit head on... The metallic armor might protect the soldier from the fire but not from the intense heat of the flame. From time to time it would catch one of the soldiers in its tiny front claws and toss them high into the air and snap it up in mid-flight. It reminded me of watching a sea-gull eat popcorn.

I considered my options. Judging from the ineffectiveness of the soldiers' lasers the beast was probably also impervious to my ectroplasm blasts. I probably could fly rings around it but it filled so much of the corridor that there wasn't much margin for error. Could I sneak by it on foot? It's eyes were small and I doubted that any fire-breathing creature could have much sense of smell. All it would ever smell would be fire and brimstone. But walking past the dragon would take a lot longer than flying past it, and the longer time meant more chances for something to go wrong.

I was still considering my choices when there was a blinding flash. A shockwave of hot gases rocketed past me, throwing me against the wall. It was a full minute before I had regained my senses.

I looked around.

The dragon was gone. Evaporated. Burnt to a smudge against the wall. A huge smudge but that was all that was left. It my right, and climbing through a mammoth hole burned through the wall of the tunnel was a squat mechanical beetle. My old friend, the Walker. It squared it's beetle-like body off and emitted a loud autotuned roar before spread out its legs to lower down to my level.

I poured energy into my hands with a growl. This damn thing was more persistent than a jealous ex-girlfriend!


	23. Crumbling Eden

**Dr. Chaucer**

* * *

I probably didn't need to lock the door but I did anyway. Even in a culture as advanced as ours there are times when you don't want other people barging into your room so we have locks on our doors. By now everyone should have evacuated the facility and would be gone as well as soon as I got the last of my papers.

I'd always been a bit compulsive about neatness but right now the room was a disaster, I'd dragged all the books from the shelves. For research I'd found that it's better to have the data printed out and available for easily flipping through pages. Also there's something impressive about a wall of antique literature. They were also an excellent place to hide papers you want no one to find. I'd fanned through the books, pulling out the papers I had hid there, through the slips of paper in a box on my desk, the books in a pile on the floor. Now I was pulling out the drawers from the credenza, dumping out their contents to get to the envelopes tapes to the bottoms of the drawers. These I tossed into the box as well.

A chime sounded. Policy dictated that the AI running the facility announce itself before speaking. "Madam Director," it said is its soft, non-confrontational voice, "there is a problem with the evacuation of the facility."

"I'm busy," I snapped. "Deal with it."

"Madam Director," the AI began and paused. AL's don't need to pause. The computers they run on are so fast that they have fully computed what they're going to say before they even begin. Alli was doing this to force me to pay attention to what she was going to say next. Damned arrogant program. "_You_ are the problem with the evacuation. You are the only person left in the facility who needs to evacuation."

"Busy!" I repeated. "Call me when there's 90 seconds left to before the place blows."

"Understand," the AI said. There was a brief pause. "Madam Director, it is now ninety seconds before generator core breach."

"Damn! Look," I said as she pulled out another drawer and dumped its contents on the floor. "I'm not leaving until I've collected all my research."

"Might I remind the Director that all computer files have been mirror to a remote server."

"These aren't on-line." I pulled the envelope loose, quickly fanned through the pages inside before tossing it into the box.

There was another beat. "Madam Director, that is a serious beach of facility protocols. All research is to be kept on the servers. I am obligated to report this serious breach of Good Laboratory Policy to the -" The AI paused because even super-intelligent artificial intelligences sometimes have difficulty in coping with human inconsistency- "the Director." The AI finished lamely.

"Consider me notified. I'll issue a disciplinary note if and when we survive this."

"A little help here!" The communicator on my desk chirped.

I picked up the device. It was keyed to only one source. "You!" I snarled.

"Love you, too, babe, but I need a little help. I've got a sudden infestation of crabs here."

"Contextual analysis?" I barked to the AI.

"The Large autonomous Mobile Weapons Platform discharged its weapons a few seconds ago along the outside of the facility near the service entrance to the power complex in the vicinity of the specimen. Humans have described the low profile, six limbed device as 'crab-like'. Also 'crabs' is a human euphemism for genital lice. Contextual analysis suggesting a punning use of the term."

"Enough! I get the idea." I shuddered at the idea of bugs crawling over one's body. "You vile piece of unspeakable filth," I said into the communicator, "what have you done to my research facility? I expected you to rough it up a little, to put a little stress on the people working here, not to smash it to bits. I should have left you stuck in that containment habitat. You expect me to help you after all the destruction you've caused? If you were here before me I would be choking the miserable life out of your disgusting body!"

"Then it's a good thing ghosts are already dead. Listen, chickie, I don't do anything 'nice and easy.' If you'd read my profile you'd have known that. I like watching things smash. I like breaking things, especial human things since humanity has never brought me anything but pain and suffering. I thought you had some reason for wanting me free but if you're not going to help, you can go to hell."

"Gladly, as long as you're not there!" I threw the communicator against the wall.

"Madam Director, we're at the ten second count-down mark." Alli remarked.

I looked at the remaining unopened drawers. Twenty years of observation and research on the psychology of wizards when facing danger, threats, uncertainty. Proof that my species was declining because their avoidance of danger was making them incapable of dealing with it when it happened. Twenty years of staging little crises to see how the scientists working here handled them. The escape of the banshee seemed like a wonderful opportunity to try out a large scale test, but the damn beast was only good at destroying things. What a worthless piece of sentience. There was no time to rescue any more of my secret records, records I had never dared put on-line knowing how easily wizards break into each others personal files. And knowing how poorly the raw data reflected on me. And how poorly the wizards would take the conclusions of my studies. no one likes being told they are on the wrong side of history Well, I had collected the bulk of my notes. perhaps it would be enough to finish my study. Certainly I'll have time to work on it now, I'm going to get the blame for this fiasco. I'll probably never get another job in my life. With a sigh I picked up the box of notes and hit the teleport button.

A flash of light wiped out sight of my past.

* * *

**Dr. Percival Goddards PhD**

* * *

A poof of a green cloud and Ms. Fenton, Mr. Phantom and myself arrived in the Portal Testing chamber, completely abandoned. A flickering of light showed how close Daniel - the older Daniel - was to destroying the generator. "This way." I waved the children to follow me

The portal generator was rather simple compared to what portal gates we have seen humans building, or attempted to build. A small round platform with a three-pronged energy emitter hanging above it from the ceiling.

It was crucial that I deliver the children back to their home world. If Mr. Phantom's accusation were true, the older Daniel was more powerful then we suspected and even more mentally unstable.

"_Warning. Power levels are now - 47 percent - capacity._" ALLI announced, voice fluctuating as the lights dimmed dangerously close to darkness.

"We have to hurry." I grabbed onto the control panel and hurriedly started setting the coordinates for the portal device. "We might not have power for much longer."

"Just tell me where he is!" Mr. Phantom declared, swiftly shifting into his ghostly form. "I can slow him down long enough for you to-"

"Mr. Phantom," I interrupted, not have the time to spare to turn from the keyboard and address him properly. "If everything you told me about your older self is true then I have no reason to believe that he has shown you his full power." After the destination was set, a quick tap of the 'enter' key made a wave of electricity shoot between the machine's prongs and down to the platform. In just an instant, the energy swirled into itself and soon split open into a clear portal. In the distance of the portal stood FentonWorks.

"It's obvious that he needed you to exist back when you first fought him and now he _doesn't_." I continued typing as I spoke my fears. A pod containing hazard suit slid down from above and opened. "Besides, he's not your responsibility. He's mine." I stepped away from the computer.

"Well, I'm not goin' anywhere 'til he's stopped." Mr. Phantom crossed his arms.

"Me neither," Ms. Fenton duplicated her brother's pose. "Can't you just give us some of those armor suits too?"

"No.' I stated firmly. "Absolutely not!" I walked to the hazard suit, the front of which automatically turned intangible. I lined myself up into the back of the suit and the front quickly solidified. "You are children. There are Kripz, Tonguellos, and acid-spilling Insythgores out there." I rotated my arms around to make sure the suit fit. "Even the Telepmanti has escaped its cage and you do _not _want to know what the Telepmanti does to its prey."

"I don't even know what a Tele... mantis _is_!" Mr. Phantom said.

"And you are leaving before you _do!" _Igently but firmly grabbed an arm of both the children and started leading them to the portal.

"_Warning: Power levels at - 19 percent- capacity._"

"But we want to-!"

"_-7 percent- capacity._"

"GO!" I threw the two children into the swirling ball of energy. At first, the ball flickered away and returned with the lights before collapsing in on itself, taking the children with it. I let out a deep breath and leaned onto the now-dead computer terminal.

I saved them. They would be completely cut off from this disaster now. Safe on Earth, never to know what I would have to do.

Once my breathing slowed enough for me to resume my thoughts, I flipped on the flashlight built into my helmet and walked back over to the suit's container. With a little help from the suit's pneumatics, I popped off the back panel and retrieved the pistol and shotgun from their racks. The small amount of ammunition would help my survive long enough to get to Weapons Testing where the Armory was.

What Daniel was doing now was understandable. I would probably do the same thing were I to share his mind set. However, this amount of violence and chaos could not go without consequences.

* * *

**Danny**

* * *

All I could see was shades of green warping around me and Jazz. There wasn't a sound in the swirling image of rooms, offices... whatever was around us sped by, blending in with images of Amity Park. Pretty sure we were somewhere between Earth and the Ghost Zone at that point.

Suddenly, some huge giant crack like lightning crashed in and we stopped somewhere in a hall.

"Dear God, Jackson! _Please_! You _have _to fight it!" A guy with a robotic voice pleaded. I looked up and saw two dudes in black armor backing away from something behind the wall in front of us. "You gotta– GAAH!" Suddenly, a spray of gunfire hit the guy talking in the chest and he collapses to the ground.

Jazz was clinging pretty tight by now. Looking back, I'm kinda surprised she didn't say anything considering we probably just watched a guy getting killed. I was surprised _I _didn't say anything!

The other soldier-looking guy turned around and started running. Then, a bunch of spikes shot across the room and hit the running guy in the back. He fell down and it kinda looked like the spikes were sinking into him through his armor.

I remember trying to move forward, hoping to help the guy, but something was holding me in place. Maybe the portal's energy? I don't know. But getting back to the guy, after the spikes seemed fulled planted into the guy, his veins started glowing green. With a growl, he shoved himself to his knees and stood back up. From the side, where the attack came from, a few more of the armored men shuffled into view, each with several spikes sticking out of them, loosely carrying the machine guns they just used to kill that first guy.

I knew something very bad was going on and admittedly, yeah, I started panicking a little. I didn't know what was happening, who they were, what the spike were all about and then some giant black wolf stomps in and gives me and Jazz a loud nasty roar.

There was another crack and Amity Park flashed into view. Me and Jazz managed to get a few deep breaths of air before BAM! right back in the Wizard lab, same exact hall only this time on the other side of the wall.

And there it was! I don't know _what_ it was but it looked like some kind of man-sized leg-less bee only every inch of it except for it's eyes were covered in spikes. And then this nightmare fueling bug had two long arms made of two long barbed spears. And we were _right next to it_.

It let out a huge screech and it's giant forehead started glowing purple. The soldiers spun around, snarling and charged straight for us. The giant bug hissed and shot off some of its body spikes at us. I flinched and tried to raise a shield to protect us when the ear-splitting crash interrupted one more time and we both grunted as we fell onto grass.

I quickly shot upright "Jazz!" I turn over and saw her on her stomach, breathing heavily. "Jazz, you ok?" I grabbed her shoulder.

"Ye... yeah. I-I think so..." She sounded like she was breathing a bit too fast and heavily, I forgot what that's called but I looked her over. No spikes. I stood up and checked myself. No spikes either. I sighed and looked around. It was the park, I knew 'cuz I could see the top of the Nasty Burger sign.

"Jazz, we gotta go back." I stated, switching to my ghost form. "You saw that thing! I-If that thing teamed up with my other self–!" Jazz sat up, now taking very slow, controlled breathes "I mean, it was turning those guys into zombies or something!"

Jazz slapped her hands on her legs, cutting me off "Danny, even if we_ could _figure out how to go back to the facility, what would we do?"

"Fight it! Catch it! Something!"

Jazz sighed and pushed herself to her feet, "Danny..." She put her hand on my shoulder, "I know you want to be the hero and you want to save the day but think about it; Dr. Goddards is a highly educated scientist who specializes in the Ghost Zone's animals. And he was _scared_." She pulled her hand away to grab her other arm. "He risked a lot to send us home. Without power I don't think he can just teleport out of the lab to safety. He missed evacuation and stayed behind just to make sure_ we _could get home."

I floated down to the ground. I knew she was right. How the heck was I supposed to find Atheneum if I've never even heard of it before I met Dr. Goddards. The Ghost Zone isn't exactly a place you want to stop and ask for direction. Jazz put her arm over my shoulders.

"Let's go home." she said quietly "I'm sure he'll contact us as soon as he can."


	24. Limbo

**Dan**

* * *

The conversation with my would-be puppet-master ended as I launched a double-fisted blast at the droid's knees, knocking hard against the robot's shield. It stumbled back a half step, letting out a auto-tuned moan. I shifted to invisibility and ducked back up the hall and around a corner. I could heard the machine crushed the floor under its legs. More mechanical noises only more aggravated sounding.

I had pulled back the instant I saw the Walker until the curve of the tunnel hide me from its sensors. I looked around the corner to appraise the situation. The Walker was sitting in the middle of the hall throwing out those laser-red grids looking for me. I wondered for a moment whether I would do better continuing down the tunnel or sneak out through the opening the battle machine had made. The tunnel would undoubtedly lead to other combatants and I was beginning to feel like I had fought enough today. Yeah, that's right, even I get tired of fighting from time to time. Especially since all this fighting was because I only wanted to _exit a building_!

The hole the Walker made in the wall might lead outside the facility quicker. Then again the Walker had been following me so his tunnel might just lead back into the building. In any case I wasn't sure how I was going to get past it. I could switch to my human - again. The Walker wasn't looking for some human wandering about. But if it had the slightest hint that I was a ghost... human flesh would never have a chance against it. I could go in and try to dazzle it with speed and maneuverability. A couple well placed ectroplasm bolts and... freedom!

Man, that sounded like a crappy idea.

I looked around the curve and the Walker was moving my way. Crowds of soldiers were spilling through the hole the machine had made. My position was getting worse by the second. I closed my eyes and summoned up all my power. I filled my fists with ectoplasm and shot around the corner at top speed. One ball of fire sent the soldiers scattering. The other bounced off the Walker's shell, leaving a scorch mark in its wake. I was recharging my fists when the machine dropped its laser-scanner net over me. Instantly a pulse cannon of some sort belched fire. I twisted in mid-air avoiding the fireball, only to fly into another. The heat singed another inch off my poor, abused cape. I may have lost part of an eyebrow.

I threw a ball of plasma at what seemed like a vulnerable joint in the Walker. The energies hit and sank into the machine. For a second it seemed to squeal. But before I could get past it a barrage of gun-fire from the soldiers got in my way. I laid down a sheet of hot ectoplasm driving them back. The Walker disappeared behind my back and for a moment I thought I might have actually pulled this off.

The blaster hit me square in the back. Blood-curdling pain swept through my body. I tried to push on, to get deeper into the tunnel - beyond the Walker, but my body no-longer responded to my commands. I fell out of the air, slammed into the floor of the tunnel and rolled, head over heels for a hundred yards. I tried to stand up, to keep on running. No one was ever going to make Dan Phantom a prisoner again.

The Walker approached, stepping over me before turning around. It spread out its legs, lowering close to my beaten, burned, acid-scarred – Jesus, what _hadn't _I been put through– body. It flashed the red gridded laser one last time with screeching roar before heaving up a leg and slamming it down on me.

I grunted, moving my arms to work on sitting up. Slowly, I opened my eyes, surprised to be still alive. Of course, a look around the place and I wasn't so sure I had survived after all. The place was grey, transparent. The shadows of walls lay about me, the spaces beyond clearly visible through the film.

In front of me floated a ghost, probably only... 10-15 years older than myself. Flowing hair of black fire, torso encased in a giant shell— the same kind of shell on those monsters that tore apart that soldier— and his cape was just a singed white pelt tied around his neck.

The other ghost sunk down in the air, holding out his hand to help me up, but I got myself to my feet just fine. I dusted off my shoulder, looking away from the guy. "Who the hell are you?" I asked.

The ghost smacked me across the mouth. "Have respect for your elder and your King." He stated sternly.

I took a half-step back with a grimace. I'd never been slapped before and, honestly, the Me from a couple months ago would've just blasted the guy into a green paste on the ground. The New Me knew better. I learned to look before I leaped. I mean, the guy was wearing the skin of an animal that seemed perfected by nature for killing ghosts. Probably not a guy to try to destroy on a whim.

My mouth, however, missed a few lessons.

"Who died and made you king?" I mocked, promptly getting smacked again, distinctly harder that time.

"_**I**_ did! I am Dynithus, first of the Banshees, Sovereign of the Spectral Lands, the one True King of all ghosts!" As he spoke, rings of energy flowed out of his mouth, some of which would fade away. Others, usually when he emphasized a word, would harden and actually bump into me with a bit of force. Like... the guy was constantly was emitting a Ghostly Wail in some degree.

"Do you get your card punched for every title you just gave yourself?" I said. "Two more and you get a free Vente Mocha?" He pulled back his hand for another swing. I moved my arm up to block it. He stared at me for a second before sighing and putting his hand down.

"I can't say I'm surprised that you don't know of me." He said

"No shit considering I was born a human." I slowly let my arm down, looking for a way to just leave this weirdness behind me. "Sooooo, what is this place, a ghost zone for ghosts?"

" 'Tis more true than you would believe. This is Limbo; where ghosts are trapped when their form has been destroyed but they still have business with the living."

"And what exactly am I doing here? Am I dead? What business do I have with the living, except that there's still stuff to destroy?"

He swung to smack me again but I caught his wrist and twisted. This normally would have sent people crying to the ground. He just stood there, holding his arm immobile. Even when I applied more pressure his arm refused to bend. He stood there looking at me with a mixture of anger and disgust. God, at that moment he looked like my splinter self, Danny, the smugly righteous bastard.

"Do you seriously think you, with your centuries of cross-breeding with human can hope to defeat the original Banshee? I will always be the archetype to which you aspire to be."

He pulled his arm out of my hand. I let it go without fighting because I could see that he would only drag me closer to himself and at the moment, frankly, I wanted to put more, not less distance between us.

He assumed a rueful expression, looked at the hand that had tried to hit me and shook his head. "You bring out the worst in me, I fear," he said. "One of us must learn to control their temper and I fear it is me."

Yeah, the thought of being stuck in "Limbo" with this crazy dude was not pleasant.

"I suppose it would be fitting that the elder must explain how things work to his heir. You see, for my sins I was dethroned and killed. In my pride I could not except death and have awaited here for one who would reclaim my throne for me."

"And you think I'm the one? " I actually gave a bit of a snoring laugh at the just the idea of me sitting of sort idiotic throne all day. No. "I don't give a damn about how you _think _I'm your kid but every relative I know of was born a human and died a human."

"Yes, yes, they were but my blood in you goes much father then any living person's memory can attest to.

"You see, five hundred years ago, a rift opened between the worlds. As the ruler of all Ghosts, I was the first to cross to ensure it was safe for ghosts to enter. And it was. The world of humans was a strange but wondrous place. The place there were so different from ghosts. So peaceful and innocent. And the humans so..." the old ghost sighed and looked downcast. Pathetic. "I lost my way," he said after a while. "So enwrapped was I of that world that I forgot about my kingdom, my queens, my many heirs, the whole clan Banshee. Instead I fell in love with a Human woman, and," He cleared his throat "had many children there on Earth... out-of-wedlock."

"Oh fantastic! I'm literally a bastard!"

"You are the descendent of that woman. A human with blood of man and ghost.

"Then one day there came a messenger, my eldest son, Sakmortan, bleeding, half-dead, with word that the Ghost Zone was in flames. In my absence dissent and civil war had broken out. My queen was dead, my 38 children scattered or dead."

"Thirty-eight children?!"

"I was torn between my love for my human wife and the love of my kingdom but I knew I had to go. Returning to the Ghost Zone my son and I were ambushed by rebels. I tore through the hordes of soldiers with my Wail but they were too numerous and too knowledgeable about the strengths and weakness of my Ghostly Wail. Sakmortan died trying to protect me. Coming to the ruin that was a palace I found my usurper waiting for me. It was my adopted son, Pariah Dark. After all the years I had treated him as one of my own he had turned on me, seized my Crown of Fire, my Ring of Rage. Like his forebears, Pariah Dark was a born betrayer, a back-stabber, a ghost who only lives for destruction."

"God Almighty!" I yelled, half in anger half out of desperation to make it stop "You're making me miss my English Teacher!"

"He challenged me to a duel, the Ghost Zone as the prize. But he had picked his time well. I was still staggering from the lost of my first son, Sakmortan, the lost of my wife, my children, my kingdom. The betrayal of my one act of charity. My heart was not in the fight and so I ended up here. An exile from my lands, a ghost of a ghost.

"And so I have waited here these many hundred years hoping that somewhere blood of the Banshee breed had not be extinguished and would rise up again and crush Pariah Dark once and for all."

"And you think I'm that guy, huh? Funny, 'cause I feel like I have a lot more in common with Pariah Dark then I do with you. I'm not interested in ruling some kingdom of ghosts. I think you've got me confused with my other self, Danny Fenton. He's a goody two-shoes from the word good. He'd be a great one to rule a Kingdom. Of course I'd just come around and kill him.

"Listen, Pops, it's kind of interesting how a ghost power like the Ghostly Wail got to Earth, but I don't care. I've got a date with a Walker that put me here, m'kay? I'm not going to hang around for 500 years crying in my beer about what I did wrong."

"But the throne needs to be occupied by an almighty force!" The self-proclaimed king said "Who will end the lawlessness of the Ghost Zone?"

"Not! My! Problem!"

"But it _is_ your problem," Gramps started to sound a bit annoyed at this point. "You will never have peace, have rest until you conquer your wild impulses and love of destruction. You must overcome yourself, if only for your own good. Winning back the throne that is your's would focus your energies in ways that are good."

"Look, I tried being good and what did it get me? My parents, my sister, my friends blew up! Life isn't fair where if you're always the good guy things always go your way! Even if I did play nice, what would it get me? I don't need money, don't need people's respect, I'm all-powerful already! There's nothing for me! Nothing for me anywhere!"

I paused for a second, fuming through my teeth. God, I really didn't have anything or anyone. I could completely vanish from existence and not a single goddamn person or thing would be worse for it. I know for a fact the time I came from, if it still existed, is far better off since I vanished into the past.

"You have no one?" Dynithus asked, leaning closer and softening his tone. "No one at all?"

I shook my head 'No'. The ghost pulled back a bit, reworking the speech he had probably been working on for half a millennia to fit with this new information. "My child." The old ghost spoke up. "Even the mighty Banthradon cannot survive alone. It requires a pack working together. Even _I_ had my closest consultants by my side when I lived..."

I turned away from the crazy old ghost and started looking for some way out of this place. It was like to could almost see into the Realm where I had been but there was some wall, a membrane separating me from where I could see my body, lying on the tunnel floor, surrounded by a flock of soldiers.

God, that burned me up. They were standing there, highfive-ing like they were the hero's of the Ghost Zone! My hands dug into the film separating the living and the dead nothingness I was trapped in. A hand was placed on my shoulder. I turned and the so-called king forced a small smile.

He was about to keep on blabber mouthing but thankfully there was a flare of light, or rather a pulse on the continuum of the ghost zone. Something had happened unleashing a tremendous flood of ectoplasm. I heard a rumbling crump and guessed that the ghost-powered power generator I had smashed up had finally exploded. The power of a thousand ghosts washed over me. Ghosts exist by absorbing the ectoplasm of the world around us. So I absorbed more and more that this tidal wave of energy. And as I absorbed the power I became stronger and stronger. An exultation washed over me. I felt like a god, capable of anything.

I grabbed the stuff of Limbo and tore it asunder, stepping through and back into my body. I stood up and cast the soldiers away from me with a flick of my ectoplasmic infused hand. The Walker targeted its guns on me and I reflected the laser-blasts way with a shield representing the tiniest portion of my power.

But as I turned toward the Walker preparing to tear it limb from limb a wave of nausea washed over me. I staggered, could barely stay on my feet.

I caught my reflection in the mirror faceplate of one of the soldiers I had slain. Energy was circling my body like a maelstrom trying to pour itself into me. There was too much ectoplasm, too much energy. If I did not get rid of some of this power, refused to absorb any more of this energy I was going to explode, like an over-inflated balloon..

I hurled myself at the Walker, lifting it up off the ground and throwing it back through the hole it had made in the wall. It landed on its back but quickly teleported in a puff of green smoke back to its feet. I slammed into it, smashing my fists into its thick metal covering, leaving dents there where none had ever existed before. Yet it continued to come after me, firing its guns when it had a shot.

The pulse of energy had washed past me. The fear of exploding had diminished but I was still super-charged with power. And I was tired of the Walker. I grasped one of its legs and pulled. There was a groaning of metal mixed in with a squeal, perhaps of metal tearing or perhaps from the AI, but I tore that leg off the machine and threw it away. The machine collapsed to the floor and struggled there. I laughed at its misery, then flew back into the main tunnel and continued toward the surface, and freedom.

* * *

**Dr. Percival Goddards Ph.D**

* * *

I... I really don't know how to explain what I saw during that journey to the Weapons Lab. Yes, Nature was taking due course, predators killing prey, an obvious effect of total specimen containment failure, but I had never imagined such heavy losses from the military.

You see, since we wizards aren't exactly... physically intimating, our living military positions are filled by people of other races: Vampires, Werewolves and Ghosts among others for a rather extravagant amount of pay. Why, some non-Wizard families have served as soldiers for generations because the pay is so good and since there hasn't been a real war for several centuries.

But I'm getting off subject.

But as I flew down the halls on my hard-light hoverboard, blood smears and Telepmanti spikes embedded into the walls told me I was either heading towards or just missed a major massacre.

All of this was my fault. I brought Daniel here. I designed and built the Enrichment Tunnels he used to escape. Everything, every life lost... It was all my fault.

_Six months before_

_"Why do we let a werewolf into a high-security test lab like this anyway?" The woman scientist asked, tapped the end of her pen on her clipboard. The mentioned werewolf glanced up from his spot on the floor and gave a toothy growl, sinking his claws into the floor._

_"Zhat'z vhy." The other scientist answered. He pulled out the chair and sat down at the control panel as the blast shields lowered into place._

_Dr. Goddards took center stage in the test chamber, double-checking his hazard suit. The giant drill-like robotic arms around him weren't nearly as interesting as status readouts. Soon the radio in his helmet came to life and the man on the other end cleared his throat._

_"Alright Dr. Goddardz, zhe zuit should keep you zafe during zhe experiment. Remembah, if ve succeeded today, ve vill change zhe course of history."_

"_Quite literally." The woman chimed in gleefully, taking a seat next to the first man._

_Porter lifted up his head. Something was... off. He could smell the presence of another, invisible entity. It didn't smell of man, werewolf, vampire or any other of the normal creatures of the realm. Curiously it exuded a smell of great age._

_Porter stood up on two feet, "Percival," he said through teeth that were meant for words. "Mi senco io proksima." But it was too late. There was a flash of light, a weird sense of the universe being undone and the test platform was empty._

"_Ach! Zhis is terrible!" the man screamed. "Ve haff lost all contact with Dr. Goddardz!"_

_"Of course we have," the woman was saying, holding his shoulder to calm him. "He's in the past. We won't be able to communicate with him until the time projector returns him to the present."_

_"Percy!" Porter screamed, dropping to four legs and snarling at the two researchers. With a scream they pushed buttons on their wrist communicators and disappeared in a puffs of green smoke._

* * *

I wasn't aware at first that the experiment had gone wrong. Theory had been rather weak on the nature of the phenomenon I would be experiencing. Yes, I had read over the prospectus of the experiment and had calculated that with the hazard suit there would be nothing that I couldn't handle. And the prospect of being the first wizard to travel through time was ... very tempting.

As the energies peaked there was a sense of elation, an unusual sense of transcendence. This lasted for just an instant, less than a second I'd estimate and seemed timed with the warping of my body into 4-dimensional space. As the energies around began to dissipate there was a strange impression of a voice speaking.

A voice of the utmost sternness; commanding. But other than that nothing special. And to be honest, I'm not sure there was an actual voice or just my conscience disapproving of this experiment.

I apologize if I begin to sound rather... illogical. I'm trying to explain it as best I possibly can but there are many part of my experience that, frankly, don't seem to make any sense.

First thing to do in an contingency was to ensure my suit was still functional. The displays of my Hazard suit indicated that there were no threats present except that the chronometer on the suit had stopped working.

Now you can imagine I was slightly worried... Ok, to be honest I was in panic mode. I have no idea where I was. My instintcs told me it was somewhere in the realms of the Ghost Zone but unlike any place I had ever heard of. When I looked up I saw I was in a long, dusty hall built in a medieval pattern and decorated with clocks. Lots of clocks. And no two of them showing the same time. I walked down the hall for a ways hoping to find some clue to where I was.

According to the experiment briefing, I _should_ have been transported two hundred years into the past but in the exact same location. That would be a time before this research facility was built. There should have been virgin forests all around me, not some long abandoned stone castle filled with clocks. I had gone maybe a hundred yards when I heard voices coming from a cross-way. I stopped at the corner of the intersection to listen.

* * *

_There were two voices in the cross aisle. One was deep, gravelly, speaking like a prophet of doom. The other was higher pitched, not female and not human because it hissed its words._

_"We are concerned about the Banshee," the thin voice was saying. "Already the ghost has severely damaged his containment unit. It is only a matter of time before he escapes, and being at the center of time will -."_

_"This is not the center of the time nor anywhere close to it," the other voice was saying. Oddly, for a moment it sounded like a child speaking. "All is as it should be. Daniel Phantom will not escape from his confinement here and will not be a threat to existence."_

_"How can you be sure? Even the great Clockwork isn't infallible."_

"_Clockwork?" Percival whispered to himself. _

_"I see all times as once. I know the past, the future, the present. You've been ordering me around long enough to know what I'm capable of. I do not make mistakes because there are no mistakes to make."_

_"Have you seen the power of the Banshee? Single-handedly he nearly destroy the entire Earth. The Observant High Council can't afford any errors with that kind of power."_

_"We told you once before to eliminate the Banshee. Yet you defy us." This was a third voice I hadn't heard before. It spoke in the thin hissing tones of the other but in a slightly lower tone._

_"You wanted him eliminated from the time-stream and I took him out of the time-stream. Just because I did it in a manner you did not imagine does not mean my method is any less effective."_

_"But if he escapes?"_

_"I say again: everything is as it should be. Your problem with Daniel Phantom will be dealt with, as will other matters within my domain."_

_"This isn't over, Clockwork!" the higher pitched voice declared. "This matter will be taken up by the Council. And if it is determined that you are being negligent in your duties you will be removed as Master of Time!"_

_"I assure you that they won't find me negligent. Good day, gentleman." the deep-voiced entity spoke with finality._

_The voices were on the move. Percival hurried back the way he came until he came to a small alcove. He ducked into there and held still in the shadows. Soon he saw a couple of strange being that seemed all head with one gigantic eye drift around the corner, turning away from the direction he was and proceeded up the hall. _

_After a time they disappeared. Goddards had watched them closely and yet he couldn't tell if they had just become hard to see in the gloom or had literally vanished. He checked the suits datalogs and was surprised ti find that it had not recorded the conversation. Nor had the chronometer advanced even a tenth of a second since he had arrived here. He wondered if all the displays that showed no threats in this place were working, could be relied on._

_The position indicator, for example displayed negative coordinates in all four dimensions. How could make any sense unless this building was, somehow, outside of the space-time of the Ghost Zone. And the deep-voiced person calling himself The Master of Time? How could one be a master of something as nebulous as time. And why did he constantly said "everything is as it should be?" Those were weasel words if he had ever heard any. Who determined how things should be._

_And what of those giant eyeballs? Observants? What did they observe and why did they think they were the master of "the master of time?' There were too many mysteries here. Goddards wished the recall protocol would hurry up. This place was beyond all comprehension._

_He heard a rattle behind him and turned around to give the alcove a fuller survey. The room was full of niches and in each niche was a clock. Some where running forward, others were running in reverse. There a hourglass in one niche. As he watched a grain of sand launched itself from the pile at the bottom and flung itself through the narrowing of the glass into the upper chamber. He bent over it closer to watch as another grain of sand flowed up through the glass._

"_I... might just need therapy after this." Percival muttered through his teeth._

_There was a rattle again. Afraid that he was not alone Goddards spun around. There in a larger niche was a battered, dented metal cylinder, slightly shorter than his forearm and as thick as his thigh. There seemed to be a hinged cap on the top and several buttons along the side. One of the dents he realized was like the form of a face, stamped into the metal! Below it and somewhat distinctly formed was another imprint of the face. The cylinder shook. Curiosity, the bane of his entire race's existence, over-whelmed the researcher. He reached out for the cylinder._

_"I wouldn't" a deep voice said behind him._

_Percival spun around with a yelp, surprised to find a ghost hovering behind him._

_"Welcome to my citadel," the ghost said. "I am Clockwork." As he was speaking he had changed from an elderly bearded man to an infant of two or three years to a middled-aged man of maybe forty. "That device is called a Fenton Thermos. Inside is perhaps the most dangerous ghost in the universe. I would hate for you to accidentally let it loose."_

_Percival back away from the cylinder. "Sorry. I meant no harm. I was conducting an experiment and somehow ended up here. It was an accident."_

_"There are no accidents," the grey-bearded ghost said. "Especially when it comes to time travel."_

_Goddard staggered back at the ghost's unexpected revelation. "I... hate to disagree, uh, Time-Master, but there are millions of accidents every day." he put his hands behind his back. "I'm not certain on the statistics but I think the average rate of accidents is–"_

_"Walk with me," the ghost - Clockwork? - said. Which was ironic because he was floating above the stone floor of his "citadel."_

_Percival gave one last look at the device containing the universe's most dangerous ghost._

_"Do not worry. He heard us talking about him and it aggravated him but the Fenton Thermos is good for a while longer."_

"_I can relate hating being talked about as if you're not there." Percival bowed his head a bit. "But why am I here?"_

_"Your arrival here was one of my ... adjustments to the time stream. I could not let you arrive in the past where you intended to go."_

_"It was chosen because no one was there. It would only be a proof of concept at the very most."_

_"Proof of concept that time travel is possible can not be allowed. Ever."_

_Percival was thinking rapidly as he always did. "I'm... going to go out on a limb and guess you're the reason the equipment was repeatedly malfunctioning."_

_Clockwork shifted to his child form and nodded with a smile. "I could have done much worse, mind you." Shift to adult form "But I've learned that sometimes a gentle nudge can be more powerful than deadly blow."_

"_Second Theory:" Percival put a finger to his chin "You kept it malfunctioning to scare the other test subjects away so I would take their place."_

_"I felt that a Goddards would be the most helpful to my current predicament."_

"_I... I-I'm flattered that you think so much of me. " Percival quickly gave Clockwork a deep bow._

"_The Banshee is becoming a pressing issue. The Observants have become disturbed by his power. They demand that I do something about it - as you know." Clockwork had morphed into his child form and smirked broadly at him._

_"Banshee? History records only one banshee type ghost, King Dynithus. And he died five hundred years ago as well as any offspring that might have had his unusual ectoplasmic DNA. There are no other banshees. Period. Full-stop. End of story."_

_"And yet you were on the verge of letting one out."_

_"In that containment device?"_

_"His name is Daniel Phantom. His has been an unfortunate life. He is filled with rage - rage against everyone and everything. But he is the true son of Dynithus, born on Earth to a human woman. The Banshee genes are wide-spread among the humans but as it's a recessive gene and can only be expressed by a ghost. None ever appeared until recently when Jack Fenton opened a portal into the Ghost Zone."_

_"Yes. There was considerable debate where we should bomb the portal to prevent an invasion of humans into the Ghost Zone. A decision is expected in the next five to ten years."_

_"I am charged by the society of Observants to see that the course of time is not disturbed, by the likes of your time experiments. But from time to time the Observants, having looked into the future have decided that they do not like the shape of things to be. At such times I am charged with changing history. After so many centuries they still expect direct and heavy-handed actions on my part. They do not understand that people will sense these things and the more arbitrary a thing is done the more obvious it will be. So I move subtly, in the background, doing as little as possible to achieve their commands."_

_Percival wasn't sure if that was such a good thing or not. People who work in the shadows almost never have good intentions. "If he was so dangerous and you having so much power, why did you let him exist?"_

_"There was no good way to remove him from continuity without tearing a hole in reality. The best I could do was to create a countervailing force to get him into the Fenton Thermos. The Banshee still exists as Danny Fenton, a less angry young man who seems a future for him and his family. He is much domesticated though very powerful when he reaches his full growth. Dan Phantom's restless energies are tasking the powers of a very remarkable containment device. I think when you've had time to analysis it you will be amazed that a"mere" human could built something so good._

_ "You're givng me the containment device?" Percival asked warily._

_"Only if you agree to my bargain."_

_"As long as it isn't a fatal one." It was amazing how vulnerable one could feel in an armor suit in the right person's presence._

_"The time travel experiments cannot continue." Clockwork change to his elder form. "I will ensure they will not. I merely ask that you save everyone a bit of time and close your research in this matter before 'accidents' start happening."_

"_I mean no disrespect Time-Master Clockwork but we've come so far and just one trip back would be enough to satisfy-"_

"_And in exchange-!" Clockwork spoke louder ending the wizard's protests. "–take the Thermos, take charge of Dan Phantom. Use your great technical skills to keep him out of trouble. Learn all there is to learn about this last of the line of Dynithus."_

_ "Are... Are you sure? I mean, am I really the best qualified to handle a Banshee?D-Do you have a list of, say, recommendations on his care or maybe a close grandmother willing to discuss her grandson's needs to any degree? Maybe a–"_

_Clockwork pressed the button on top of the clock embedded in his staff and in a flash, Percival stood back in the now abandoned test chamber, alone with nothing but a thermos._

* * *

I had been in the Time Master's lair for a month apparently, wherever that lair was. I elected not to tell my colleges of Clockwork, not even Porter. I told them the Projector sent me to some strange nonsensical dimension and the Thermos was the only sample that the suit said was safe to bring back to our world.

The cylinder holding Daniel quickly became the talk of the facility. Scientists trained in arts not even remotely linked to Spectral Sciences came to probe the device for themselves, all marveling at the readings they would get. Early on, I too reveled in conducting tests and getting readings on the device and the entity inside, forgetting for a time the reason I had gotten Daniel to begin with..

But a week or two into the new research, an almost regularly scheduled rattling from within the thermos was particularly violent. Why, it was so strong that, if not for Porter's lightning fast reflexes, the Thermos would have fallen off its stand and shattered on the floor right there in the Analysis Lab.

After a short but unanimous outcry from the Research Team, The newly established Banshee Project was granted funds to build the most colossal containment unit ever built. Weeks were spent planning how to restrain the ghost. Devices were prepared. A thousand and one details attended to. Every biological and mental weakness we could think of, we set out to exploit.

But we had missed one small, insignificant little detail. Daniel may be a banshee but he was born human and had the power to assume human form. And now he was free. Destroying everything in sight. And all the powers of the wizarding world might not be enough to recapture him. And it would be my fault. All of this was because I was too curious about what kind of being could smash the imprint of his face on the walls of a prison.

* * *

**Tyrangamen the Minotaur**

* * *

My new herd created by fate tore through the sorcerers' unnatural land. The two wronged Banthradons led just a muzzle ahead of the Hunter, while I galloped farther back. Once or twice the Hunter looked back, a corner of his lips pulling back to reveal more of those unnaturally white fangs.

"You run behind the pack like a Delta." He called back to me. "The Banshee will not give mercy to subservient lessers."

I huffed through my nose and picked up speed, coming up right beside him. "You talk of lessers yet you do not lead our hunt. Is that not the nature of a lesser?"

The Hunter answered with a snarl and a toothy snap aimed at my ear. I flinched and slowed. Was I offended? No, That was his kind's way of keeping order. But I was unsettled. The monster would not give quarter to weakness. But if this Hunter was not the strong Alpha I had thought he was, than perhaps the whole party was sprinting towards our death.

A distant noise halted our progress; the Banthradons snarling at it in an instance and pulling their head into their shells. I looked to where the beasts had. A wave of spectral energy crashed through the corridors.

"Behind the Banthradons!" The Hunter commanded, quickly shifting forms and crouching behind one of the beasts. As my size was of a permanent nature, I was forced to lay flat against the ground behind the second beast.

The Banthradon's shells took the powerful wave better than I had imagined. Scores of the energy flew off and over the creatures and, in mere moments, the waves ceased. The Banthradons pulled their heads out and the Hunter changed back.

"We go!" He barked and snapped at the beasts to get them running again.

* * *

Author's Note: I feel like this story is losing its touch and I can't put my finger on why. Have I made too many OCs? Dragged this whole thing on a tad too long? Should I focus solely on Dan's perspective? I really need some feedback, guys.


	25. Collision

_Author's note_: First of all I want to thank everyone that gave me feedback on the last chapter. I took your comments and criticisms to heart and I really think the story might be a bit better for it. Secondly, my co-author has started a small story detailing the effects of the generator's explosion on Earth titled '_The Amity Breach_' which you can find on my author/bio page. Be warned, so far it's only one chapter and it's unclear whenever the next will be up but it might be worth keeping an eye on if you want more of this story.

* * *

**Tyrangamen the Minotaur**

* * *

It was in a great hallway that our herd came upon the metal beast. During my slavery, I had see the sorcerers create this giant being out of metal. Yet, strangely enough, it would move and roar as if it were living. As powerful and monstrous as I knew it was, the one we encountered was far less dignified.

The metal creation lay on its side, scarred and struggling to command its massive legs to stand. Each failed attempt to get its legs under its comparatively small body crushed parts of the ground and sent small shockwaves through the floor that I could feel through my hooves. I looked to the Hunter. His ease at the sight of the monster helped me somewhat.

The Banthradons barked and yipped between each other before charging at the machine. At first, I could only marvel at their ability to lunge so quickly into battle... and than I saw the large splatter of green blood on one of the monster's legs. My guess was it was ectoplasm, the lifeblood of their favored prey, ghosts.

The Hunter and I caught up to the predators at a less hurried pace. The Banthradons were devouring the green ooze at a frenzied pace, hardly even noticing the leg was twitching about trying to stand.

"I think it's best to leave this behind." I told the Hunter. I sniffed the blood stain over the Banthradons. Ugh, my nose was still slightly clogged with dried bits of my own blood but the smell was distinct. It was that evil ghost's scent.

"No." The Hunter answered simply. He stood and backhanded one of the predators away from the monster's leg. He sniffed the green ooze and swiftly dragged his claws through it. "Put some on your horns." He ordered. "The monster's kind can become immaterial. Only the blood of their own can harm them in such a state."

I was a bit troubled by that statement. I wasn't comfortable with the idea of impaling something, even one as deserving as the demon. Nevertheless, I gathered a bit of the ectoplasm in my hand and gave my horns a thin coat of the ooze.

"This mechanical warrior is equal to the demon's strength," The Hunter continued above the Banthradons snarling and eating "and because it is damaged will have that much more desire to avenge itself against the ghost. This Walker will be our fiercest ally."

The Hunter walked around the iron beast, patting it occasional its carapace, murmuring to it with soft words like a dame to its calf. Then he beckoned to me. "I have need of your great strength. The Walker can not regain its balance laying on its back like it is. We need to turn it over."

He directed me to a place on one corner of the metal beast's body while he took the other corner. He chanted a phrase and on "ho'ut" we heaved together. The machine was incredible heavy, almost like a rock but we rocked it forward some. We repeated the maneuver until we got a good rocking going then with a final "ho'ut" as we heaved the Walker up just upward enough for one leg to slip out from under its body. With a strange groaning sound the leg straightened out and the war machine rolled over, it's other legs catching it before it crashed to the floor and there it was tottering on its three remaining legs.

"Good, good," crooned the Hunter. He walked over to the Banthradons and cuffed them away from the pool of ectoplasm. "Find the ghost!" he commanded. "He has left! Find the beast!"

The beasts grunted and squealed, reluctant to leave their snack. But after a few more smacks from the Alpha they cast about their long-necked heads and started shambling down the tunnel. "The monster is as good as ours," the Hunter gloated. At times the Hunter scares me. I have never seen someone so - so - actively hostile towards someone not in front of him. Minotaurs are gentle souls who prefer retreat to combat. Every instinct told me to abandon this violent Alpha. But the ghost had hurt me - badly, and I was filled with an uncommon desire to hurt it back.

With the giant Walker at our back we walked into darkness after the ghost.

* * *

**Dr. Percival Goddards Ph.D**

* * *

There it was. The Weapons Lab. I was relieved to finally land at my destination and yet... this was probably one of the places that forced Daniel into wanting to escape in the first place. Several times, poor Daniel had been dragged to that very lab to be experimented on, blasted with Lord knows what.

If I had been more selective about what I let them do to Daniel maybe none of this would've ever happened. He wouldn't have wanted to escape and then... all these people would still be alive. But I had to stand by my words to the Time Master. I'd have to be the Bad Guy and put Daniel back in his dome. Or would I be the Good Guy?

I dismounted the hover-board into my wand and looked around for the locker where the enhanced control wand was stored. I hadn't come to the Weapons Lab in quite some time, since I had put a stop to their experiments on Daniel. Things had been moved around a lot but I quickly found the armored cabinet in one of the darkened room.

I almost went to swipe my ID card but quickly remembered: no power, no ID scanner. The locking mechanisms were dead and sealed closed and unless I could find a way inside–

I froze. I knew exactly what I had heard. That loud distinctive rippling clicking was the call of the Krallenkopf. Moments after I heard the creature coming, I saw it slowly wandering outside the lab, its immense armored head hung low, swinging back and forth scanning for any kind or level of noise. You see, Krallenkopfs are completely blind and rely solely on hearing to protect itself. Unfortunately, they are extremely short-tempered and _any _sound can set them off.

But as I ran the information I knew about the creature through my head, I figured out exactly what I needed to do... then promptly stopped and asked myself how I got to the point in my life where what I was about to do would only be the _second_ most dangerous and most likely lethal thing I was going to do that day.

I whistled sharply.

The Krallenkopf immediately swung it's whip-like neck, smashing the lab's door and parts of the wall before charging at me with a high-pitched snarl. Well, reality was certainly more terrifying than I envisioned. I actually needed to remind myself that the next phase of the plan was to _get out of the way!_ I took a flying leap and landed near a desk, just as the beast slammed into the cabinet. The metal locker crumpled in an instant under the animal's force. Of course, the crash only enraged it further but what I needed fell out of the wreckage unscathed.

It was a advanced prototype of the Omi-Energy Emitter. As the name implies, it emits several different kinds of energy in several different forms. Unfortunately for me, when I moved to take the device, I disturbed some rubble. The Krallenkopf immediately froze as the sound and roared its furious shrieking call as it shook the remains of the cabinet off its horn-of-a-face.

Since I was spotted, er, _heard_ already I picked myself up off the floor and took a dive for the device. I managed to grab it and pull away from the trampling hooves without injury. The Krallenkopf reared up, pulling it battering-ram of a head back to crush me. I turned the safety on the device off and fired. A bolt of energy shot out, blasting the large beast back against the far wall.

I collected another device to aid me, the Energy-Displacement Gauntlet, before I ran back to my hoverboard. The beast that size wouldn't stay down very long and I couldn't waste time fighting something that wasn't out to destroy everything in its path. Well, at least, not something that did it strictly for self-defense. I zagged around a desk on my way out of the destroyed entrance.

The Administrator had relayed Daniel's trajectory to me. Apparently, Dr. Chaucer managed to gain access to Daniel's collar and overheard his plans to escape via the trolley tunnel straight to New Ravenholm. I... have yet to figure out why Daniel would outright state his plans aloud but any lead was better than trying to deduce what was Daniel's brand of destruction apart from the other escaped specimens' dismantling of the facility.

I knew I probably didn't have a choice in what I was about to do. I had given my word to the Time Master but still... I'll admit I was a bit tempted to just leave the facility... to let the military handle the situation. But that argument in my own mind died fairly quickly. I needed to stop him. I had brought him here and if I abandoned him, he would surely die by military hands.

* * *

**Dan**

* * *

It all made sense now. The old king's words seemed so clear. I _was_ weak! I was a pale shadow of what I was destined to be. I had dominated the humans with only a sliver of the power I was meant to have. The explosion's energy was still pulsing inside my entire being, though far less than it had before. I could only pray it lasted until I broke free. But I could tell. This was the power the old man spoke of; utterly god-like, omnipotent, dare I say it?, like a King!

I know I'm rambling on at this point but I had never felt such an epiphany before. I had wasted so much time and energy focusing on destroying some damn town when an entire Ghost Zone was waiting for me to claim my throne! I could just imagine: everyone I ever went up against bowing at my feet, begging for mercy. I knew Vlad still had the Crown of Fire tucked away somewhere in his Wisconsin mansion and, since I haven't been able to make a ghost portal myself since I got collared, I'd just tear through the Ghost Zone until I found a Portal and-

I turned a corner and stopped. There was a mound of dead animals, more specimens, like me, yearning to be free, piled up against the back wall,. They were cast in a deadly red light by a shield blocking one hallway. Sign on the wall said the blocked hallway was where I needed to go so I ducked around the corner.

Soldiers, barriers, and most importantly a pair of turrets that quickly locked onto me and started firing. I raised a shield and the rapid volley of bullets blasted against it. A few pierced through the barrier at first, but I simply sent more of my abundant energy to add more than enough protection.

The stronghold was backed up right in front of the tunnel entrance, crates of freight and other things were piled high to offer a barricade. Sheets of flimsy looking plastic were angled in front of the piles. About... oh say, 15-20 soldiers whipped around to look at me. "It's the Banshee!"

"Oh, don't mind me, guys!" I gave the soldiers a delightful fanged smile "I'm not here to interrupt any circle jerking." I charged up a blast in one hand, "Just trying to evacuate like everyone else." I launched my blast around the edge of my shield towards the barrier. To my surprised, the man-made barrier held up against my shot and scattered it into pieces.

"Sorry, Banshee!" One stood up from behind one of the chest-high barriers. "Military personnel only!"

I sneered, readying a bigger blast until I heard another soldier shout "Bouncer!" Out of the corner of my eye I saw something fly past me and turned. It was a grenade, gently tumbling off the back wall and rolling limply under me. I quickly dove back behind the wall, repositioning my shield just in case I wasn't far away enough. It went off, throwing parts of the other specimens' corpses around or even outright turning them into those oh so interesting piles of bloody mush that, well, I won't elaborate on for those with weak stomachs.

Another shout about a bouncer and another grenade was thrown through the shield.

This wasn't good. Preternatural spectral power or not, I was in pretty bad shape. I'd need some serious luck, which I'm sure would never have had a chance of happening, or a really good plan.

And then my ghost sense went off.

Across the hall, a ghost soldier lazily floated into view, followed by a few more on foot. I figured something was wrong with them, considering how jerky and sloppy their movements were. Like... like zombies. They sure as hell looked torn up and injured enough to be undead to some degree. I charged up blasts in each hands as they turned to me... but they didn't attack. And then... then some freakish giant... wasp thing flew in.

You know the worst thing about being two people in one body? You remember things that never actually happened to you. Case in point: As soon as I saw that bug I had some kind of Post-Traumatic Stress type flashback to Vlad as a kid. He was messing around at his grandpa's farm... chopping up some already-cut firewood and, wouldn't ya know it, there was a wasp nest built right behind the log he was chopping. And they weren't happy having their home cracked open. I'm sure you can figure out what happened next.

Anyway, this... bug thing was covered with spikes, and I mean covered! Every inch but it's eyes were pointy and I had a good feeling that the zombie soldiers weren't hanging around it for moral support and free hugs. Since the bug had the number advantage, I decided to use the sucker-punch advantage and launched a decent sized beam towards the bug while it still hadn't seen me.

It noticed the beam incoming and its head flashed purple. In a split second, five zombie ghosts lined up in front of it and each raised a ecto-shield. My beam broke through two ghosts and their defense but had weakened enough to be deflected by the third. The bug gave a piercing screech before its body spikes lifted up a bit and fired off towards me.

I threw another shield up, making sure it was plenty strong and thick enough so none of them could get through. About ten or fifteen spikes hit my shield, each quickly sprouting little micro-barbs into my energy field. From those barbs my shield started turning a sickly pale green. At first I thought my shield was weakening and fading away for some reason but that I saw it bending towards me! I dropped the shield but only the outer edges faded away at my command. The infected parts remained... and lunged for me. I flew back a bit, solely out of sheer surprise mind you, before I charged a much larger blast and evaporated the infected ectoplasm.

Bug-breathe didn't like that. It's forehead lit up a bright red and the soldiers all charged forward. In retrospect I shouldn't've been surprise when they managed to pass in front of the turrets without a single shot being fired. What kind of futuristic society would built turrets that would kill their own soldiers? But I was surprised for just a moment. They charged through the open hall and I answered with a simple but powerful ecto-shockwave to send them flying back.

Then the bug flew at me. As it past the military's shield, the soldier's turrets instantly sounded the alarm and opened fire. From the looks of things, it did take a few bullets before crying out for its minions. Like before, the ghost soldiers lined up and shielded the bug from the turrets.

I knew what would happen next and smirked before turning invisible.

The bug cooed in pain, rubbing its wounds with its freakish spike arms. Considering its zombie soldiers managed to trick the turrets into turning off, it probably had lots of spare time for self-soothing. Why can't I have minions that useful? All I ever had was the Fright Knight and he _sucked_. But my personal life isn't the issue and besides I was told to keep this story PG-13.

After a few moments more, as its spikes grew back and pain faded, the bug's forehead started glowing the dangerous red again. With a shrieking roar, it sent its zombies straight into the shield. The minions passed through without a hitch, though the bug itself uselessly smacked right into it. Stupid insect.

I didn't feel like watching but the gunfire, screams of terror and cut-off calls for help seemed to indicate the bug's team was winning. One turret started giving off some kind of warning signal before being thrown through the shield into the wall. The second one was quickly smashed against the ground.

I had to smile a bit. It was nice to have other people, or animals, do my dirty work sometimes. Not that I'd ever stop kicking ass completely, just... letting others willingly do all the little annoying things that aren't worth my time, like dealing with worthless soldiers.

As royalty, I probably deserve such services.

The bug jabbed at the shield. It obviously wanted to join its legions on the other side but how to get past the shield. I floated up, still invisible and sat down mid-air. This would be interesting.

Soldiers freely passed back and forth through the barrier, waiting for their master to figure out how to proceed. Luckily after a few more short brute force attempts, it stopped. It touched its spike arms together and its head dimmed to a golden color. Its slaves' eyes changed to match. It let out a happy little squeal and quickly pointed to the edges of the shield... to the thin pole-like generator screwed to the walls.

It must've read its minions' minds, learning the military's weaknesses for such a set up. The soldiers' combined strength slowly but surely pulled the shield generators out of the wall, the red barrier fading away nearly instantly. The bug waved a cautious stinger where the shield had been to ensure it was gone before moving onward.

Now the next dilemma: reveal myself and fry that flying cockroach which might free a good dozen and a half soldier to try to kill me **or** stay put and wait for the bug to painfully slowly but eventually solve all my problems? I chose quickly. I might not have had anywhere I needed to be in a hurry but I sure as hell didn't care to waste all freakin' day waiting for a bug.

I turned visible again and fired a good sized shot, knocking the ugly bastard straight into the wall. The bug swung around, the soldiers turning in unison to give me a snarl. I squared off with the animal. I could just tell in its soulless giant black eyes, it wanted me in its power and, in case you haven't read _any of past 20 odd chapters_, I've had just about enough of everything trying to control me! Soldiers closing in, that monster stiffening it's spikes for another assault and BAM!

The wall behind a group of soldiers explodes, throwing at least 10 of them, including the bug, up against the opposite wall. The heated debris clattered to the floor all around me. The giant bug screeched, its spike-for-arms jamming into the floor as it tried to force itself up. I caught a red laser briefly shooting towards the insect's specimen collar before a long blood-stain metal leg shot out of the dust cloud and smashed the beast into a sickly yellow pile of goo.

The rest of the robot quickly smashed through the wall, swinging wildly as it teetered one way then the other. Its scanning laser zoomed in on my collar before it gave a very harshly auto-tuned screech. Oh God, it sounded like that really old grinding dial-up noise of early 90s internet modems... not pleasant.

The droid scanned me quickly before lifting a leg up, the one still covered in my blood, and slammed it on the ground. The impact make a fairly impressive hole in the floor as well as send a good sized vibration through the laminate tiles. All in all, an alright attempt at intimidation. I give it a C Plus, maybe a B Minus if I added surviving a leg being torn out of its socket.

Out from between the robot's legs, twin white blurs raced through the hole, splitting off to cover both my flanks. They slowed just before pouncing for me to see what they were: the Banthradons, each aiming for an arm like they had before. Animals never learn, never change hunting tactics. But I do.

I shot off another ecto-wave which managed to rock them just enough to interrupt their attack. Had to keep them from getting close. I charged up a blast in both hands, ready to fry the shell off those beast and then out for the cloud yet another figure charge at me with a bellowing war cry. I barely registered the new arrival before being thrown against the far wall. The minotaur slammed a hoof on the ground before giving off another monestrous bellow.

Well, whadda ya know? The voice was right. I should killed the damn thing.

But I lost sight of my most important target and the Banthradons took their chance. The duo pulled me to the ground and began tearing into my arms, their acid spit aggravating old wounds and quickly forming new ones. The Banthradons forced my arms to the ground and pulled them over my head. Whatever energy I pouring into my hand melted away in seconds. I made more ecto-pulse waves, jerked about, everything but their grip was almost as absolute as the grip the scientists' lasers had been.

They were waiting for something. In a second I remembered my first encounter. They pinned me before and waited just like this. They waited for the third to make the kill. So where was...Above my own yelling and the predator's snarling I managed to hear something. Laughter.

The cloud was settling and the final figure slunk out of the hole into the red emergency lights o the hallway. And of course it had to be _him_. It had to be that goddamned idiotic slobber-ridden furball with the dumbest name I had ever heard in my entire life.

Porter.

"Poor, poor demon." He cooed, amazingly in English, as he sauntered slowly towards me. "Should have stayed in hell where he belonged." His claws came out as he came closer, and they were dripping with something green. "Instead of abusing angels like Percy."

In writhing pain or not I wasn't going to let _that_ fly. "_I'm_ abusing _him_?!" I was going to go on but he cut me of with a loud roar.

"He could not see your evil! You took advantage! I have lost one family to monsters like you." The wolf growled through twin rows of fangs. "I will not lose another!" He charged with a guttural roar and leapt for my torso.


	26. The Royal Roar

_The Werewolf cub tore through the forest, pouring every ounce of his strength into running faster. The snarling behind him meant the adults were closing in. He shouldn't be crying. His father had grown old, as all Alphas do. And as sure as the sunset, a younger male rose to challenge him and his father was killed. Nothing unusual. Still, he had to fight back the tears when his father was slain. Tears were for the fragile, his mother had told him, strong future Alphas should never show such weakness._

_But then, the new Alpha broke tradition and sought to turned his claws upon the child. The mother rose to defend her only cub, and there was nothing the child could do to help her. Nothing but run as she fell to the new Alpha as well. Once the mother was no more, the Alpha turned to end young Kota's life, to end any chance of the boy to growing and taking revenge, only to find the child had now fled._

_The new Alpha, along with his Beta and Gamma changed forward. Kota took a sharp turn. The adults slowed to change directions before resuming pursuit. The chase entered into a clearing, marked by wide track of smooth black rock. The adult quickly grinded to a stop before they could touch the cursed stone. The young cub's fate was sealed. He was doomed to die at the hands of the metal beasts._

_The child saw the adults turn and run away. He must've proven himself worthy to live. A dance on the dotted white lines in the middle of long black stone path. But wait. A noise. Something was moving fast and getting close. The child looked up. Nothing in front of him as far as he could see._

_And then the truck hit him from behind._

* * *

**Dan**

* * *

Have you ever stopped and wondered 'how the hell did I even get here?'. At what point did you realize your life is absolutely nothing like you wanted whatsoever? I remember a moment exactly like that when I snapped Dash Baxter's neck just over a month after the Nasty Burger accident. Ooh, man, did he beg for mercy. It was delicious and eternally satisfying. I used to want to be an astronaut as a child but that moment, that _ecstacy_... incomprehensible for most 'normal' people.

And now I found myself questioning where my life has lead me yet again. Pinned down by a pair of beasts literally dissolving me into goo while getting attacked by a werewolf, a Minotaur and a giant robot. Jesus! Just saying all that in a recap sounds crazy!

Oh yeah, I was being attacked wasn't I?

The wolf dove for my torso, just like the other Banthradon had before and, as I had before, I slammed my feet into the attacker's chest and sent him flying backwards. I was rocked forward by the kick and righted enough to throw the Banthradon's off of me.

I ducked back as a massive fist shot at me. I grabbed the Minotaur and hauled the beast into the air before chucking it at one of the Banthradons. The other one was snarling to my other side so I answered it with a massive blast of energy. The animal instantly pulled itself into its shell, which is _complete bullshit _in my opinion, and let my blast throw it against the wall and bounce off farther away.

The Walker unit screeched and took half a step-back, closer to the only solid exit, before its shield flickered back into existence. Looking back, it probably knew this final assault wouldn't work. It was just trying to dely the inevitable as long as it could. And while on one hand it's a completely laughable effort, I can sit back and admit there's a nobility is someone sacrificing themselves of a unwinnable war. But don't tell Valerie that, I'd hate to ruin our relationship with any amount of respect.

With a roar, the werewolf struck next by taking a swipe at my face. I flew back and charged up a blast. He dug one clawed hand into my shoulder, making me loss focus on my charge before balling the other hand and slamming it into my face as hard and fast as he possible could. I launched my blast into his size, making him throw back his head.

And then, I remember... our eyes met for the slightest second. And in that split second we knew one of us had to die. And I already died once that day, I was _not_ going back to Limbo! His black eyes narrowed and he whipped his head forward, biting down on my neck, the one and only time I have ever been thankful for this collar.

I instinctively pulled my hands off of him just to try and get him off my neck, unfortunately letting his other paw dig into my other shoulder. The collar seemed to be able to hold off the werewolf for the few seconds I needed to find a place on his jaw to grab and start prying off of me. Amidst Porter's muffled roars and the excited yelping of the Banthrodons I still heard it. That foreboding quiet click before pain.

The electricity shot straight through me as always, only this time my screams were echoed by my attacker. The giant wolf reared up and threw me down the hall towards the Walker. All I could bare to think was 'No, no, no, no!' as I pulled desperately at the band. Not this, not now! I was so close to escaping, being free again and some jackass dog set my one weak spot off!

And then... it bent.

The shock weakened ever so slightly but even that was a relief from above for me. I got as much of the collar as I could in my hand and poured every single ounce of my energy and to pulling it off. It bent again... then again! With one final groan of protest the back of the collar shattered and my collar crashed to the ground, miniature lightning shooting from one set of prongs to the other.

There are no words for the freedom I felt at that moment. No more voice, no more slavery, no more humiliation for the entertainment of others! Just a pure state of grace I've never felt before or have ever since. Now, I would've _loved_ to be able to stand there and savor the moment, but there were still five nasty little annoyances to deal with. And of course, I knew exactly what I had to do.

I charged a blast and threw it on the floor, letting it erupt in a bright explosion before charging straight through their front line. I passed over their heads, cuing the Walker to fire off a few shots at me. I turned around and shielded myself, quickly landed on the far wall above other fallen specimens. I jumped off the wall into a puddle of blood and took a deep breath.

My wail quickly grew, filling the hall with wave after wave of pure destructive power. And then it took a somewhat strange turn. I don't know exactly what it was, I know jackshit about music, but the tone or maybe the pitch of my wail changed. I don't know if it was natural or if I something I didn't know I did but when I cracked open my eyes the rings of my wail, usually a jagged green, were smoothing out and shifting to a more silver color. They collided with the last resort force leaving the Minotaur and Werewolf with deep bleeding cuts on any part of their bodies they touched. Even the armored Walker took massive gashes into it armored body. Deep grooves were carved into the walls and ceiling adding to the copious amounts of debris in the battlefield.

Soon an unfamiliar dizziness came over me and I stopped, dropping down to one knee panting. Quiet. Then very subtle whines. The Banthradons emerged from their shells and dug into their ears with their paws, shaking the awful noise out of their heads. They both looked at me, then each other, and took off running down the other halls, yelping like beaten puppies. That definitely made me smile. The Minotaur looked like it was either completely dead or throughly unconscious from where I was and the Walker. It was mostly embedded into the wall as a matter of fact.

The Walker gave off some static like noises before a leg twitched. Suddenly, the Walker fell out of the wall and shakily staggered towards me. I was a bit drained at the moment and my labored breathing may have gotten faster when the high pitched whine of its front cannon started. I got to my feet towards the end of the charge up when its back erupted in a explosion, causing the war machine to scream and swerve into the side wall. Its cannon fired point blank into the concert, filling the whole place with dust. There was a giant crash and when the dust cleared, the Walker was on its side in an twisted wreak of oil and sparks.

And then I remembered, I was bleeding. A lot. I put a hand on my more damaged shoulder, a poor decision based on how much my own touch stung. But for that moment I thought it was over, that I could afford at least one minutes' rest. A pile of rubble churning proved me wrong yet again.

A clawed hand punched a block of cement off of it and pulled the rest of its body out slowly. I may have raised an eyebrow at the wolf. It's one thing for a ghost like myself to survive a wail and still be able to fight, but a man of flesh and blood able to still stand? Ok, he did seem to have trouble standing so it's not_ that _impressive overall.

In fact nothing about him was at all impressive anymore. A huge part of the fur on his body was gone from when I blasted him, his razor sharp teeth were covered in red blood, not green, and I'm 90 percent sure one of his eyes wasn't working anymore. He just looked like some beaten stray dog.

"Vi pensas ke via kanto povas haltigi min!" He screamed, before one of his front legs gave out from under him. "Mi ne povas pagi por perdi!" He snarled while getting back up.

He probably said some other stuff but I was a bit distracted by ceiling tiles crashing down in front of me. I looked up and 'yeeshed' under my breathe. I had blown a hole all the was through the ceiling to two stories above us. Whatever the hell I had just done tore the hell out of this place.

"-mondo sen Percy!" I rolled my eyes. "Kaj vi ne meritas vivi en mondo **kun** li! **Do mortu**!" He gave one last mighty roar before charging full speed directly at me. I charged up a blast but something cracking above made me look up. Some concrete pillar the next story up broke in half and started falling, taking out more of the floor/ceiling as it fell. A flash of white in front of me turned my attention back to the werewolf taking his final leap. The column slammed right on the wolf's spine, knocking him to the ground in a breathless whine, before other bits of rubble ended up half-burying him

I keep my hands charged just in case but the wolf didn't move. Not one inch. I let my energy fade away with a smile. Slowly, the wolf's fur and features started retracting into that of the long haired black guy I had last seen when he toyed with me in my weakest state. "Who need's a 'helpful song' now, ya ugly bastard?"

Then my moment of triumph was tainted by, you guessed it.

"_**KOTAAAAAAAAAAA!**_"

* * *

_Author's Note:_ I wrote 90 percent of this today. The theme song of Megus XLR can do miracles.


End file.
